Aids to forensic medicine and toxicology.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Aids to forensic medicine and toxicology. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    charge as regards the Countess, but pleaded that he was not impotent with others, as many of her waiting-maids could testify. When a man becomes impotent after marriage, the lady must accept the situation, and has no redress. A man may be sterile without being impotent, but the law will not take cognizance of that. The wife may be practically impotent, but the law will not assist the husband. He must continue to do his best under difficult circumstances. In former times in case of doubt a husband was permitted to demonstrate his competency in open court, but this custom is no longer regarded with favour by the judges. The removal of the testicles does not of necessity render a man impotent, although it deprives him of his procreative power. Eunuchs are capable of affording ilhcit pleasure, whilst the male sopranos, or castrati, are often utilized for that purpose. In the female, impotence may be caused by the narrow- ness of the vagina, adhesion of the vulva, absence of vagina, imperforate hymen, and tumours of the vagina. Sterility in women may occur from the above-named causes of impotence, together with absence of the uterus and ovaries, or from great debility, syphilis, constant amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, or menorrhagia. V.-RAPE Eape is the carnal knowledge of a woman by force and against her will. The resistance of the woman viust be to the utmost of her power, but if she yield through fear or duress it is still rape. The woman is a competent witness, but her statements may be impugned on the ground of her previous bad character, and evidence may be called to substantiate the charge. The definition of rape which we have given is not alto- gether satisfactory. Take, for example, the case of a woman who goes to bed expecting her husband to return at a certain hour: The lodger, let us say, takes adv.intage of this fact, and, getting into bed, has connection with her, she not resisting, assuming all the while that it is her husband. This is rape, but it is not ' by force,' and it is not ' against her will,' but it is ' without her consent,' as