He alleged that he had
made several unsuccessful attempts to enter her, and in doing so
had caused paraphimosis. On examination by the surgeons she was
found to have a dense membrane, of a fibrous nature, entirely
occluding the vagina, which they incised. Immediately afterward
the woman exhibited morning sickness and the usual signs of
pregnancy, and was delivered in four months of a full-term child,
the results of an impregnation occasioned by one of the
unsuccessful attempts at entrance. Such instances are numerous in
the older literature, and a mere citation of a few is considered
sufficient here. Zacchias, Amand, Fabricius Hildanus, Graaf, the
discoverer of the follicles that bear his name, Borellus, Blegny,
Blanchard, Diemerbroeck, Duddell, Mauriceau, a Reyes, Riolan,
Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, Wolfius,
Walther, Rongier, Ruysch, Forestus, Ephemerides, and Schurig all
mention cases of conception with intact hymen, and in which there
was no entrance of the penis. Tolberg has an example of hymen
integrum after the birth of a fetus five months old, and there is
recorded a case of tubal pregnancy in which the hymen was intact.
Gilbert gives an account of a case of pregnancy in an unmarried
woman, who successfully resisted an attempt at criminal
connection and yet became impregnated and gave birth to a
perfectly formed female child.
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