Note 612 — 2. RAPE.

The injuries thus occasioned, consist in rupture of the hymen, swelling, contusion, inflammation, or laceration of the parts, discharge of blood; and in persons of extreme youth, the laceration of the perineum is said to have sometimes occurred; and as Rape cannot be completed without considerable violence, we should also expect to find marks of force in other parts of the body, such as bruises about the arms and thighs; but in appreciating the value of such indications, let the practitioner remember, that the greater part of them may occur where the connexion has taken place with the consent of the female, or they may even be the effect of disease. Dr. Percival relates a case where the inflammation of the pudenda, and symptoms of defloration occurred in a child four years old, which occasioned her death; there were strong reasons for suspecting that she had been injured by a boy of fourteen years of age, and he was accordingly taken into custody; but the case received elucidation from several others of a similar nature having been shortly afterwards received into the same hospital, and of whose nature no doubt could be entertained. When Rape has been committed, gonorrhœa, or lues venera are sometimes communicated, especially in cases of young children, in consequence of a very general opinion among the lower libertines of the male sex, that the best possible cure for this disease, is intercourse with a virgin; if then the accused should be found free from disease, where the female is contaminated, and vice versa, it affords a strong presumption of his innocence; in conducting, however, such an investigation, there are several sources of fallacy, with which it is the duty of the medical enquirer to be fully acquainted; he should know, that purulent discharges, from other causes, do take place in children; and on the other hand that a person, in whom no appearance of existing venereal infection can be discovered, may communicate disease to others; this fact was ascertained by Mr. John Hunter, and its truth has been satisfactorily confirmed by the repeated observations of succeding surgeons. Women labouring under leucorrhœa may impart a discharge to the male; and Dr. Male observes, that the latter, affected by a gleety discharge in consequence of strictures, and other irritations in the urethra, may also affect the females.