A manual of medical jurisprudence for India : including the outline of a history of crime against the person in India / by Norman Chevers.

  • Chevers, Norman, 1818-1886.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of medical jurisprudence for India : including the outline of a history of crime against the person in India / by Norman Chevers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    724/902 (page 688)
    The Nizamut Adawlut Reports, Vol. I., p. 1, contain the case of a mam -arm. put his wife to death, at her own request, in consequence of her loss of honor from having been violated by several persons. Fatal Injuries Inflicted in the First Act of Connexion. Mr. Verelst wrote, in 1772,* Women in the East are transferred witn little ceremony ; and, whether they be wives or concubines, the men seldom await their consent. When Colonel Clive defeated Surajah-oo-dowlah, Meer JafFer sent to offer the Colonel some hundred of Surajall's women who were taken in the camp. Were our laws of Rape (girls under ten years of age are incapable of consenting under our law) and rules of evidence enforced, one-half of the males would incur the penalty of death. There is a very important set of cases which, it is to be trusted, are almost peculiar to this country, examples of which sometimes come under the investigation of medical officers. These are instances in which Fatal Injuries are inflicted on the Persons of Young Girls in the First Act of Connexion. In 1847, there was a trial, at Bancoorah, in which Mr. Cheek, the Civil Surgeon, was questioned whether he thought it possible that a man, having connexion with a girl eleven years of age, could, xoithout unusual or extraneous force, have produced rupture of the perineum from the vagina to near the anus; also, whether a wound of eliptical or diamond shape, large enough to admit three fingers, could have been caused by the simple act of coition. He replied, that he had never seen a case of the kind, but had every reason to believe that rupture of the perineum might occur from a man having connexion with a child of that age. He consi- dered, however, that the mere act of coition would not produce a wound of the shape described above. He thought that, if a rupture of the perineum had taken place from coition, it would have been in a straight line from the vagina towards the anus. (It would appear that the body was not seen by Mr. Cheek.) He considered that a mere rupture of the vagina to the anus is not sufficient to cause death, although the injury is of a very severe nature. In cases of midwifery, such accidents do occur, and are not necessarily followed by death. With regard to the probability of the girl in question having died from the haemorrhage attending such a rupture, he considered that there is a great difference in various constitu- tions. In one case, death might be caused by a loss of blood, which would not be fatal in another. There cannot be a doubt that, in many cases, unusual and extraneous force is employed. View of the Rise and Progress of the English Government in Bengal, p. 141.