2. In. October 1920, an unmarried Mahomedan female of twenty eloped from her
father's house with a young Mahomedan male. She stayed with him for about a week,
and during this time she admitted to having had sexual intercourse with the man. On
examination I found a superficial laceration, J" x %", , along each side of the labia
minora. The vaginal canal was dilated, but the hymen was intact, it being thick and
Besides the act of coitus, the hymen may be ruptured by—-
1. An accident, e.g. a fall astride on a projecting substance, fence, or
while playing at see-saw.
The plea that is usually brought forward by the defence pleader in a
case of alleged rape in mofussil courts is that the hymen was ruptured by
an accidental fall on the sharp and obliquely cut remnant of a stem of an
Arhar plant projecting two or three inches above the ground in a field. I
have known it lacerating the sole of the foot having penetrated through a
shoe, but rupture of the hymen alone in this manner is highly improbable.
Again, forcible separation of the thighs will not rupture the hymen,
especially in children, unless the perinaeum is ruptured. Owing to the
situation of the hymen, its rupture is not possible by riding, jumping,
Fig. 135.—Hymen presenting two
(From Peterson, Haines and Webster's
Legal Medicine and Toxicology
Ed. IT/VoL L)
Fig. 136.—Circular hymen'torn in
(From Peterson, Homes and Webster's
Legal Medicine and Toxicology,
Ed. II, Vol. L)
2. Masturbation, especially if practised with some large foreign body.
But the hymen is not destxpy;^! in most cases, as the manipulation in little
girls is generally limited tovpafts,>gpterior to the hymen. In such cases the
^ymphse are elongated and the clitoris is enlarged by the continued practice
of masturbation. The vaginal orifice may be dilated, and the edge of the
hymen may show at the most a scratch produced by the finger nail. The
hymen is, however, liable,to be rtiptdired by the forcible introduction of a
stick or finger eonstitaling indecent assault on small, girl^
3. Introduction «of instalments by medical |xrae^^^rs during exami-
nation, or a surgical ^|ia*i^,' ' • . , , *, ••. \ ^'J^j^xIVy,"''''_/,;.
~ 4. A foreign Sa^'^cli >s& >&*&&$ pi||^ fafaxfiw^ with a
l to rendering fiSjjjj^^ (o0oe viris).