On the Lacerations of the External Genital Organs, except the Hymen, during Labour in Primiparæ

The cases were all deliveries in the Eoyal Maternity Hospital during one of my short incumbencies as ordinary physician. The women alleged primiparity, and in all there was, in the condition of the hymen, corroborative evidence of the truth of their assertion. The condition of the hymen is not stated in the reports of the cases ; but I am responsible for all .the statements of injuries, the examinations and reports having been made by myself. The statements as to the position of the head and as to the bleeding were in some cases verified by me; but for these Messrs Macdougall, Nelson, and Graham are responsible, being the house-surgeons who had charge of the deliveries. In the cases will be found no negative statements, but only the actual injuries observed in each. When the anterior edge of the perineum alone is referred to, as for instance in a laceration not amounting to half an inch in linear extent, it is called the fourchette. An ordinary perineal laceration includes a laceration of the four-