a child might be born alive, and yet peradventure it might be born dumb. The term born alive or viable being so understood, medico-legally, it might be stated with perfect propriety that a foetus but six inches long, weighing only eight ounces, not more than four months old, was born alive, was viable-having moved its arms. and legs, opened its mouth, etc.-though it died within half an hour of its birth.2 The law assumes that a child born in wedlock is legitimate unless it can be proved that the husband was impotent-by which it is meant that he was physically incapable at the alleged period of conception of begetting children.

Impotence may be due to masturbation, to the opium and the alcoholic habit, diseases of the nervous system, blows upon the head and back, absence, deficiency, or malformation of the penis, as hypospadias, epispadias, fistula in perineo, castration, cancer or absence of the testicles, absence of spermatozoa from the semen, etc.

In connection with the absence of the testicles it should be mentioned that their mere absence from the scrotum does not involve impotence, since such a condition may be simply due, as in crypsorchides, to the testicles not having descended into the scrotum from the inguinal canal. Of the conditions causing impotence some are susceptible of treatment; others are not. The procreative power in the male, or the age of puberty, begins at between fourteen to fifteen years of age, with the full development of the testicles, the power of fecundation depending upon the presence of active spermatozoa in the semen. The procreative power may continue to an advanced period of life, spermatozoa being found, as already mentioned, in the 'Coke: Institutes, Philadelphia, 1853, vol. i. 29 b, 30 a.

2

British and Foreign Medical Review, vol. vi. p. 236.

semen of very old men. The impotence of old men appears to be due to the sluggishness of their spermatozoa rather than to their absence from the semen. It should be mentioned that there may be impotency without sterility, as in those cases in which sexual intercourse is prevented by malformation of the penis; and, on the other hand, sterility without impotency, as in cases of castration.

The procreative power begins in the female, as well known, earlier than in the male, at about from twelve to thirteen years of age, and even earlier in tropical countries. In the female, as in the male, unfruitfulness may exist without incapacity for sexual intercourse, and vice versa. Sterility in the female may be due to debility, leucorrhoea, dysmenorrhœa, amenorrhœa, menorrhagia, absence or disease of the uterus or ovaries, imperforate vagina or hymen, occlusion of the uterus, etc. It is an interesting fact that while a woman may be sterile with one man she may be fertile with another, it frequently happening that a woman, married for years without issue, in contracting a second marriage may bear children. As the law regards a child as legitimate, though not conceived in wedlock, the mother marrying afterwards, and her condition being recognized by the husband at the time of the marriage, and as a child born after the death of its mother is legitimate, though the marriage-tie be dissolved by the death of the mother, it follows that a child, though conceived before marriage and born after the death of the mother-that is, neither conceived nor born in wedlock-would nevertheless be legally regarded as legitmate.

Grounds for Divorce.-Impotence or sterility may constitute grounds for divorce proceedings on the part of husband or wife, provided it can be proved that the incapacity for sexual intercourse existed at or before the time of

marriage. If such incapacity supervened, however, after marriage, as due to disease, there would be no grounds for such proceedings. In such cases a medical examination would, of course, be necessary, and while such an examination could not be made compulsory, any refusal on the part of either of the contending parties to submit to the same would certainly be injurious to the cause of the party so refusing.

So-called "frigidity of constitution," or unwillingness to submit to sexual intercourse, would not constitute grounds for legal divorce, absolute proof being required of incapacity for sexual intercourse or of severe and intense pain being suffered by indulging in it, as in cases of vaginismus, etc.

Tenancy by Courtesy.-In cases where a husband acquires a life-interest in the estate of his wife, a child having been born during the life of the latter, "tenancy by courtesy " as it is called, the medical examiner may be called upon to prove not only that the child was born alive, but also that it was born while its mother was living, in order that the child may inherit. The proofs of a live birth have already been considered.

With reference to the legal qualification of a child having been born during its mother's lifetime the only difficulty that might present itself would be in the case of a child removed from its dead mother by the Cæsarean section, in which instance, if the letter of the law was carried out, the husband would be debarred from inheriting. The interpretation of the clause providing that the child must be capable of inheriting will depend upon what the law chooses to regard as a monster-the latter not being capable of either inheriting or transmitting property. is very difficult, however, to say what constitutes a monster legally. If a monster be defined as a creature

It

which has not the shape of mankind,' then a headless or double-headed or double-bodied creature would be excluded from inheriting. On the other hand, difficulty will be equally experienced in disposing of a property if a creature with two heads, with or without two bodies, be regarded as two individuals, and every creature with a single head, whether disomatous or not, as only one individual."

Paternity and Affiliation.-In connection with the subjects of legitimacy and inheritance, that of paternity and affiliation may as appropriately be considered here as elsewhere. The question of paternity presents itself under various circumstances, as, for example, in cases of bastardy, where the alleged father is compelled to support the child, or where a bastard child claims to be the heir of an estate, or where a child is born ten months after a second marriage, the woman having married a second time within a month of the death of her first husband. In such cases the paternity is determined by the likeness of the child to the parent, the color, features, attitude, habits, gestures, voice, personal deformities being taken into consideration. In certain cases, questions of affiliation arise, as in the case of a woman. having had intercourse with two men within a few days of each other and giving birth to a child, one of the men being affiliated as the father rather than the other. In connection with such cases, the medical examiner should bear in mind that, in the lower animals at least, the impress of the first sire may be often seen in the foal begotten by the second one. In cases involving the capability of

1 Blackstone: Commentaries on the Laws of England, Philadelphia, 1877, Book II. p. 246.

2 St. Hilaire: Histoire général et particulaire des Anomalies de l'Organisation chez l'Homme, Bruxelles, 1837, tome iii. p. 331.

inheriting and transmitting property, the question of superfœtation, or the possibility of a woman conceiving a second time when already pregnant, may present itself.

Superfotation. In cases of superfotation either two children are born at the same time, one of which, however, is immature, or two children are born at different times, both of which are mature cases of superfotation of the first kind. Superfotation may be explained on the supposition that there has been a twin conception, one of the embryos, however, developing more rapidly than the other; or that the uterus was double, as is always the case in the marsupial animals, like the kangaroos, etc. Cases of the second kind can, however, only be explained by supposing that the woman had sexual intercourse with one or two different men and conceived successively. That superfotation may be due to repeated sexual intercourse and to successive conceptions there can be no doubt; there are well-authenticated cases of a woman having given birth to children of different colors as the result of intercourse with a white and a black man successively. It is also well known that double conception occurs in animals-a mare, for example, covered successively by a horse and an ass, giving birth to a horse and a mule.

Double Sex: Hermaphroditism.-Not infrequently, on account of divorce proceedings, questions in regard to legitimacy of offspring or capability of inheriting, etc., the attention of the medical examiner is called to individuals in whom the sex is doubtful, or who are said to be hermaphrodites. While, as a general rule, there is no difficulty in distinguishing the sex in such cases, nevertheless, on account of the manner in which external and internal generative organs develop in certain exceptional cases, it becomes very difficult, if not impossible, at least during life, to state positively