Bessie was taken to a physician for
vulvitis, etc., by some people before she came back to her
father. During the period she roomed with her father he
regularly treated her locally with a salve and a wash. The
physician who later examined her for Mrs. S. found the parts so
swollen that he could make no diagnosis of ruptured hymen, but
took it for granted. After the father and brother had been in
jail for some weeks the inflammation had subsided. (It is only
fair to say that the father had clamored for a specialist's
examination, which, he contended, would prove his innocence. Of
course he was not aware of her earlier experiences or he would
not have been so sure.) Then a competent gynecologist found that
coitus had never taken place. The hymen was intact. This was at
the time we studied the case. On the day of the trial, I with
two other physicians examined the girl. It was found that a
cotton swab about 3/8 of an inch in diameter could with
difficulty penetrate the vaginal orifice. There was not the
slightest evidence of any rupture of the hymen or of any
vaginitis. So far as the ``awful disease'' was concerned,
repeated bacteriological tests over a considerable period failed
to show the extensive vulvitis to be due to gonorrhea.
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