54 OF THE SEXUAL ORGANS. 



infants it often presents the shape, the rosy tint, and softness of the 

 lesser labia. 



143. Regarded as the seal of virginity by the vulgar, and for a 

 long time so considered by medico-jurists and magistrates, the hymen 

 has on more than one occasion been the cause of an iniquitous de- 

 cision by the tribunals, either in condemning an innocent woman, or, 

 on the contrary, in absolving one who was scandalously guilty. But 

 at present it is universally admitted that a thousand causes foreign 

 to the act of coition may destroy it, and that copulation itself does 

 not always occasion its rupture. If this membrane be thin, delicate 

 and broad, a sudden or extensive movement of the limbs, excoria- 

 tions, the appearance of the menses, &c., may cause it to disappear. 

 If it be thick, muscular, elastic, but narrow, the sexual union would 

 not be prevented, and the hymen might remain whole until labor 

 should take place, as is proved by the cases mentioned by Pare, 

 Naegele and others; but I believe it incapable in any case of furnish- 

 ing a real obstacle to the escape of the child.* If the hymen be broad 

 and resisting, while at the same time it either partially or completely 

 closes the canal of the vagina, it might form an insurmountable ob- 

 stacle to the flow of the menses outwards, and by retaining the 

 blood in the vagina or womb, give rise to symptoms that would be 

 more or less important, according to circumstances. Smellie, Den- 

 man, (fee, report the cases of women in whom this state of things 

 produced all the general symptoms of pregnancy, and who reco- 

 vered their ordinary health as soon as an incision into the hymen 

 had allowed of the escape of the blood with which the parts vrere 

 filled. I have been consulted on account of one young lady twenty- 

 two years of age, whose hymen had prevented the consummation of 

 marriage. I met with another specimen, in the corpse of a woman 

 about forty years of age, who had cohabited with her husband for a 

 long time, but without having any children. As a general rule, 

 however, the hymen is ruptured at the first sexual approach, which 

 in consequence of this laceration is accompanied with more or less 

 pain, and a slight discharge of blood. When once torn, its shreds 



* I consider the hymen to be a fold or duplicature of the mucous lining of the 

 orijicium vagina. It is in all respects analogous to the valvulae conniventes of 

 the bowel. In many individuals it is ruptured by the sexual congress; in others 

 it escapes uninjured, and is not unfrequently met with in the examinations made 

 during the conduct of labors. Like the other tissues with which it is con- 

 nected, it is tractile and distensible to such a degree, that it is even possible for 

 a child to be born without destroying it, as I have ascertained in my attendance 

 on persons confined with a second parturition. I make this statement with 

 confidence, as I am sure it will be confirmed by persons much engaged in ob- 

 stetric practice, who will take the trouble to make the inquiry. — M. 



