Full text of "Medical Jurisprudence And Toxicology"

..PREGNANCY . This is sometimes resorted to by prostitutes. The usual procedure is to insert a piece of sola pith as large as the vagina can contain and then to make the unfortunate girl sit in a tub of water. The pith acts as a sponge tent and dilates the vagina. The size of the pith is increased gradually for further dilatation. Thus, the hymen is often lacerated. 5. Ulceration from diphtheria noma, or other diseases. In such cases the whole hymen is destroyed leaving a scar only. Sir Bernard Spilsbury3 reports a case in which destruction of a child's hymen was due to threadworms, and until the cause was not known suspicion of foul play was entertained. Persistent pruritus in children is likely to lead to injury of the hymen. 6. Clots of menstrual blood passing through the vagina, but this is highly improbable. Fig. 137.�Intact hymen in a pregnant woman; it had to be ruptured during labour. (From a photograph lent kindly by Dr. G. B. Sahay.") Breasts.�These are firm, elastic and hemi-spherical, with a small un- developed nipple surrounded by an areola, which is pink in fair women and dark brown in dark women. The breasts become large and flabby by frequent handling and sexual intercourse, as well as by masturbation, but are not affected by a single act of coitus. PREGNANCY In courts of law the question of pregnancy may be disputed under the following circumstances : � (1) When a woman advances pregnancy as a plea to avoid ^attendance in court as a witness in an important trial It must be mentioned that a pregnant woman will be excused attendance in court only if a physician certifies to the fact that delivery is imminent or that there is fear of the occurrence of serious1 complication if she were forced to attend court. (2) When a condemned woman pleads pregnancy as a bar to hard labour or execution. Under section 382 of the Indian Criminal Procedure Code, the High Court is the only judicial court which can postpone the execution of a sentence of death confirmed by it, or commute it to trans- portation for life, after it is satisfied from the Civil Surgeon's certificate that the woman is pregnant. The usual certificate required from the Civil Surgeon in such a case is as to whether the woman is " quick with child " or not. In England by the Sentence of Death (Expectant Mothers) Act, 1931, sentence to penal servitude instead of sentence of death is to be passed on a woman condemned of an offence punishable with death if she is found to be pregnant. The trial jury, without being re-sworn, will have to determine the question of pregnancy from the evidence adduced before it either on the part of the woman or on the part of the Crown. (3) When a woman feigns pregnancy soon after her husband's <|NS%4 so as to defraud the rightful heir by producing a' supposititious faejr* ^ estate, the heir-at-law may apply to the court to order an inqui allegation. a. Lancet, May 7, 1932, p,.990, f