In discussing injuries of the vagina, the first to be mentioned will be a remarkable case reported by Curran. The subject was an Irish girl of twenty. While carrying a bundle of clothes that prevented her from seeing objects in front of her, she started to pass over a stile, just opposite to which a goat was lying. The woman wore no underclothing, and in the ascent her body was partially exposed, and, while in this enforced attitude, the goat, frightened by her approach, suddenly started up, and in so doing thrust his horn forcibly into her anus and about two or three inches up her rectum. The horn then passed through the bowel and its coverings, just above the hymen, and was then withdrawn as she flinched and fell back. The resultant wound included the lower part of the vagina and rectum, the sphincter and, the fourchet, and perineum. Hemorrhage was profuse, and the wound caused excruciating pain. The subject fainted on the spot from hemorrhage and shock. Her modesty forbade her summoning medical aid for three days, during which time the wound was undergoing most primitive treatment. After suturing, cicatrization followed without delay.
Trompert mentions a case of rupture of the vagina by the horn of a bull. There is a case recorded in the Pennsylvania Hospital Reports of a girl of nineteen who jumped out of a second-story window. On reaching the ground, her foot turned under her as she fell. The high heel of a French boot was driven through the perineum one inch from the median line, midway between the anus and the posterior commissure of the labia majora. The wound extended into the vagina above the external opening, in which the heel, now separated from the boot, projected, and whence it was removed without difficulty. This wound was the only injury sustained by the fall.
Beckett records a case of impalement in a woman of forty-five who, while attempting to obtain water from a hogshead, fell with one limb inside the cistern, striking a projecting stave three inches wide and 1/2 inch thick. The external labia were divided, the left crus of the clitoris separated, the nymphae lacerated, and the vaginal wall penetrated to the extent of five inches; the patient recovered by the fourth week.
Homans reports recovery from extensive wounds acquired by a negress who fell from a roof, striking astride an upright barrel.
There was a wound of the perineum, and penetration of the posterior wall of the vagina, with complete separation of the soft parts from the symphysis pubis, and extrusion of the bladder.
Howe reports a case of impalement with recovery in a girl of fifteen who slid down a hay-stack, striking a hay-hook which penetrated her perineum and passed into her body, emerging two inches below the umbilicus and one inch to the right of the median line.
Injuries of the vagina may be so extensive as to allow protrusion of the intestines, and some horrible cases of this nature are recorded. In The Lancet for 1873 there is reported a murder or suicide of this description. The woman was found with a wound in the vagina, through which the intestines, with clean-cut ends, protruded. Over 7 1/2 feet of the intestines had been cut off in three pieces. The cuts were all clean and carefully separated from the mesentery. The woman survived her injuries a whole week, finally succumbing to loss of blood and peritonitis. Her husband was tried for murder, but was acquitted by a Glasgow jury. Taylor mentions similar cases of two women murdered in Edinburgh some years since, the wounds having been produced by razor slashes in the vagina. Taylor remarks that this crime seems to be quite common in Scotland. Starkey reports an instance in which the body of an old colored woman was found, with evidences of vomiting, and her clothing stained with blood that had evidently come from her vagina. A postmortem showed the abdominal cavity to be full of blood; at Douglas' culdesac there was a tear large enough to admit a man's hand, through which protruded a portion of the omentum; this was at first taken for the membranes of an abortion. There were distinct signs of acute peritonitis. After investigation it was proved that a drunken glass-blower had been seen leaving her house with his hand and arm stained with blood.
In his drunken frenzy this man had thrust his hand into the vagina, and through the junction of its posterior wall with the uterus, up into the abdominal cavity, and grasped the uterus, trying to drag it out. Outside of obstetric practice the injury is quite a rare one.
There is a case of death from a ruptured clitoris reported by Gutteridge. The woman was kicked while in a stooping position and succumbed to a profuse hemorrhage, estimated to be between three and four pounds, and proceeding from a rupture of the clitoris.
Discharge of Vaginal Parietes.--Longhi describes the case of a woman of twenty-seven, an epileptic, with metritis and copious catamenia twice a month. She was immoderately addicted to drink and sexual indulgence, and in February, 1835, her menses ceased.