The hymen : anatomically, medico-legally and historically considered / by E.S. M'Kee.

  • McKee, Edward S.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The hymen : anatomically, medico-legally and historically considered / by E.S. M'Kee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    (Jovvinvarcl pressure will depress the inferior border of the hymen and retract the whole membrane and enlarge the hymeneal open- ing, so that in most cases the index finger in that position can be introduced and a fairly careful examination made without tearing the hymen Another method is this: An ordinary soft red rubber catheter is taken and over its point for about one inch or one and a half inches there is placed an orinary India rubber con- dom, which is tightly bound onto the stem of the catheter by a few turns of thread. There is thus improvised an instrument closely re- sembling one which used to be employed for arresting hemorrhage in cases of epistaxis, the armed catheter being placed in the nose at the point to plug the nostrils. This ar- rangement is gently passed into the vagina; the point is then expanded either by inflation or by injecting a small quantity of warm water; this done, the catheter is clamped. There now is inside the hymen what may be termed a miniature Champetier de Ribes bag, and by making very gentle traction on the catheter the hymen is put slightly on the stretch and bulged from within. In this way 9 10 9. The horseshoe hymen. 10. The bllobate hymen. the whole hymeneal margin is fully exposed to view, so that any interruptioii in its integ- rity is at once detected, however slight it may be. In very young girls this method will be found particularly useful, as in them the hymen is very inaccessible. THE HYMEN MEDICO-LEGALLY. Magnum est crimen Permmpere virginis hymen. Truly great is the crime of the unlawful destruction of the hymen. The punishment in most States and countries seems to fit the crime. The old Mosaic law was death if the maid was engaged, and marriage and a fine paid the father of the girl and no chance for a divorce if the maid was not betrothed. There was a difference in the punishment if the rape was in the city or country, reason- ing that in the city she could cry out and get help and therefore the crime was on her part greater. Among the Athenians, Romans, old French and English and in many of the United States the crime was punishable with death. In Texas it is still a capital crime. 11 12 11. Hymen imperforatus with hematokolpos. 12. Sculptured hymen. The Manx in ye olden time brought the criminal into the market place. His victim was then given a whip, a sword and a ring. His punishment lay entirely in her hands. She could either kill, whip or marry him. Among the savages of the Figi Islands the bride of the son of a chief, if found with- out her hymen, had her own skull crushed in by a club in the hands of her father or brother. Rupture of the hymen otherwise than by sexual intercourse may occur through the examining finger or the instruments of the careless gynecologist, masturbation, flooding, the passage of a tumor from within, the passage of various foreign bodies by acci- dent or design. Hyrtle reports a case where a woman was sawing wood and a passing wagon threw her onto the saw, running the handle into the vagina and rupturing the hymen. The author of this paper was called in consultation in the case of a fifteen-year- old girl who, while walking a paling fence, fell astride it and a paling passed into the vagina, rupturing the hymen and doing much other damage. There is a curious belief extant among the ignorant that connection with a virgin will cure venereal disease. The presence of