^, IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 i.l k&§2A |25 ■tt iiii 122 no 12.0 US U m m |||l.25 1 1.4 1^ M 6" - ^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STRUT WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 (716)872-4503 CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical IV/licroreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Tachnical and Bibliographic Notaa/Notas tachniquaa at bibliographiquaa Tha Inatituta haa attamptad to obtain tha baat original copy available for filming. 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This item is filmed at tha reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film* au taux de reduction indiqu* ci-deasous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X y 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X Tlw copy fllm«d tmn has b««n rtproduosd thanks to th« g«n«rotlty of: MMiical Library McGill Univaraity MontrMi quality logibllity tho Tha imagaa appaaring hara utm ttia poaaibia conaldaring tha condition of tha original copy and in Icaaping Aiming contract spacif icationa. Original copiaa in printad papar covara ara flimad baginning with tha front covar and anding on tha iaat paga with a printad or illuatratad impraa- sion, or tha iMcic covar whan appropriata. All othar original copiaa ara filmad baginning on tha first paga with a printad or illuatratad impraa- aion, and anding on tha Iaat paga with a printad or illuatratad impraasion. Tha iaat raeordad frama on aach microficho shall contain tha symbol -^ (moaning "CON- TINUED"), or tho aymbol y (moaning "END"). whiclMvar appliaa. L'axampiaira filmA fut raproduit grica A la g4n4roaiti da: iytodiMl Library MoQiil Univanity Montraai Laa imagaa auKrantaa ont 4tA raproduitaa avac la plua grand aoin. compta tanu da la condition at da la nattatA da l'axampiaira nimA. at an eonf ormitA avac laa conditlona du contrat da fUmaga. Laa axampiairaa originaux dom la couvartura mt papiar aat imprimAa sont filmAs sn commandant par la pramiar plat at an tarminant aoit par la damlAra paga qui comporta una amprainta dimpraaalon ou dlNuatration. soit par la sacond plat, salon la caa. Toua laa autraa axamplairaa originaux aont filmAa an commandant par la pramlAra paga qui comporta una amprainta dimpraaalon ou dllluatration at an tarminant par la damlAra paga qui comporta una taila amprainta. Un daa aymbolaa auivanta apparattra sur la damMra imaga da chaqua microficha, salon la caa: lo symbolo — ^ signifia "A 8UIVRE". la aymbola ▼ algnifia "FIN". Mapa. plataa. charts, ate., may ba filmad at diffarant raduction ratioa. Thoaa too larga to ba antiraly included in ona axpoaura ara filmad baginning in tha uppar laft hand comar. laft to right and top to bottom, aa many framaa aa raquirad. Tha following diagrama illustrata tha mathod: Laa cartaa. planchaa. tableaux, ate., pauvent Atra filmAe A dee taux do rAduction diff Arente. Loraque la document eet trop grand pour Atra reproduH en un soul ciichA. 11 est filmA a partir da I'angle aupAriaur gauche, do gauche A droite. et do hiaut en bee. en prenent le nombre d'imagee nAceeseire. Lee diegremmee suivents INustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 1 ■ 3 4 5 6 WIS-M— • ' Yjrffmr HHii ll\,j/ir^Qc^l\AX^ti^^Z^^ Rtprinted from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal of April 8, i8gf. ON THE IODINE TEST FOR S£MEN.> BY WrATT JOailSTOM, M.D., Or HONTBEAL, CANADA. l>Ay«<« Arohives d'Anthropologie Oriminelle, January, February and March, 1896. 3 It has also been puDUshed separately by Storek, Lyons. Aco or^tal reappe pear, I soluble ■ist sol cal anc Drie* cal as f use a St RecentI reason I semen r Thee I have r Thet tborougl a Bubsta tive bod' • reaction! be very a By us test-tube, down, might ev A sing sufficient As to I claims tt such as or vagina have mad Iiave alwi character The sp as his obs not teste< far as my with at 1( know, unt In resp4 I can find for semen. * Vol. u of On the Iodine Test for Semen. 8 According to Florence (and my own observations confirm bis statement), tbe or^tals are sparingly soluble in cold water and very soluble in warm water, reappearing again on cooling. On exposure to the air, they gradually disap- pear, but reappear on adding a fresh quantity of the reagent. They are readily soluble in ether, alcohol, acids, fixed alkalies and iodide of potassium ; they re- ■ist solution in very weak ammonia solutions. For their formation to be typi- cal and abundant considerable dilution is necessary, and I have found the degree of this solution a most important detail in making the test. Dried stains usually give the reaction in a manner fully as prompt and typi- cal as fresh semen, and I have been using as a demonstration specimen for class use a stain on cotton over twelve months old, obtained from a homicide case. Recently, the crystals have been more difficult to obtain in abundance, the reason being apparently the increased difficulty of obtaining a solution of the semen rather than an impairment of the reacdon. The exact nature of the crystals has' not been shown, as far as I am aware ; I have regarded them as some special crystalline form of iodine. The nature of the substance which occasions the reaction has not yet been thoroughly established. Florence claims to have isolated from sesmal stains a substance which be terms viriesperminet and which he regards as a distinc- tive body producing this phenomenon. He states that it does not correspond in reactions with the substance isolated and called spermine by Poehl. It is said to be very soluble and to resist completely the effects of ammoniacal decomposition. By using a larger quantity of material, the reaction can be obtained in the test-tube, an abundant red or chocolate-brown deposit of crystals being thrown down. In this way the demonstration of the semmal character of a stain might even be made without the use of a microscope. A single fibre teased out of a thread in a piece of cotton stained by semen is sufficient to give a profuse crop of crystals under the microscope. As to the degree to which this reaction is characteristic of semen : Florence claims that it will not react with any of the other secretions of the body, such as blood, urine, sweai, saliva, tears, bile or milk, nor with pus or nasal or vaginal mucus. The secretion of the Cowper's glands does not give it. I have made a number of tests with the various substances mentioned above, and have always obtained negative results, or at all events have never obtained a characteristic reaction. The sperm of animals is stated by Florence not to give the reaction, as fai* as his observations went, though these were not extensive. Personally, I have not tested this point with sufficient thoroughness to give an opinion ; but as far as my observations go a pseudo-reaction of doubtful nature can be obtained with at least some forms of animal semen. This point is stiU, as far as I know, unsettled. In respect to Florence's claim to priority, I think it can hardly be disputed. I can tind no recent work on legal medicine in which any chemical test is given for semen. Wood * says, " Tnere are no chemical tests by which seminal plains * Yol. 11 of Wittbaoa ud Beoker'a Handbook , 18M, p. Tff. On the Iodine Test for Semen. I ' can be recognized." Dixon Mann (1898), Strastman (1895), Vibert (1896, 4th Edition), Hoffman, Tajlor, Liman and our other standard authors do%ot refer to it. Roussin indeed recommended for examining seminal stains the use of solution of iodine and iodide of potassium, but only for the purpose of staining the spermatozoa, and the fluid which he recommended (iodine 1, iodide of potassium 4, water 100) does not give the Florence reaction. Apart from Florence's work there is practically no literature on the subject except the older work of Orfila as to the odors obtained upon heating the stains or treat- ing them with nitric acid. Florence stutes that he sti.rted with the firm conviction that so unusual a fluid as semen, which had such well-marked physical peculiarities, must con- tain some characteristic chemical substance. Acting with this hypothesis in view he proceeded leriatim to test seminal stains with all the ordinary reagents U3ed in obtaining chemical reactions, especially those found of value for recog- nizing alkaloids and those generally employed in physiological chemistry. By trying these one after the other he discovered several which gave him positive results, and among these he selected the ter-iodide of potassium as the one best adapted for medico-legal requirements. During the past three months I have been making some observations on cadavers (22 cases) upon the occurrence of this reaction in connection with the secretions from the prostate, seminal vesicles, testicle substance and the post-mortem ejaculations from the meatus, with a view of determining whether the prostatic ingredient of the semen or the semen proper was chiefly con- cerned in giving the reaction. The material was obtained for the most part by allowing it to dry on cotton-wool swabs, so as to obtain a condition com- parable with those under which seminal stains ordinarily come under medico- legal examination. Pressure of other work has prevented me making these examinations with sufficient thoroughness to make their publication in detail seem advisable until I have gone over the material again more carefully, but the general results are as follows : Drying does not appear to interfere with the reaction materially within the time limits I have mentioned ; i^nd, in fact, I have often obtained the reaction more satisfactorily from moistening the dried secretion than from the original fluid. Decomposition, such as is met with in drowned bodies and bodies long exposed to the air, appeared to interfere with it to some extent, contrary to what Florence's observations would lead us to expect. The semen from the meatus or from seminal stains gave a better reaction than that sub- stance obtained from the regions where the prostatic and testicular components of the semen had not yet mingled. Semen expressed from the prostatic duct into the urethra gave prompt and characteristic results, while these were much harder to obtain from the testes or the contents of the vesicles. So much was this the case that at first I thought the reaction might be due to the prostatic element of the secretion and not to the strictly seminal part. In some cases, however, typical results were obtained from the contents of the seminal vesicles and from the suhstutice of the testicles. In two cases the reaction was imper- On the Iodine Teat for Semen. feet or almost abseDt, certaiuly not sufficiently typical to justify medico-legal deductions, one being a case of cancer of the seminal vesicles and prostate, and the other double chronic vesiculitis with corpora amylacea very abundant in the prostate. In both of these, spermatozoa wer^ present in the semen. Hypertrophy of the prostate did not appear to affect the reaction. In one case the reaction appeared to be present before the period of puberty (seven and one-half years), though here it did not appear to be perfectly typical and satisfactory. I could not find it in the secretions of infants and very young children. These few observations are not recorded here so much with 'a view of pass- ing judgment upon the percentage reliability of the test as to indicate the direc- tion in which observations might be made, as the total number of observations I have been able to make so far is not sufficient to justify general conclusions.* With regard to the practical merits of the test, I think that those who use it for testing seminal stains will agree as to its' decided value as a prelimi- nary test, and accord it a position analogous to the guiacum test for the blood, by which we can promptly And out whether there is a probability of positive results being obtained upon further examination. Personally, if it was obtained in a typical manner, I should regard it as very strong corroborative evidence in a case where spermatozoa were claimed to be present. With regard to its independent value as a test, Florence formulates his con- clusions as follows : (1) From the occurrence of the reaction alone, without discovering even frag- ments of spermatozoa, be would conclude that it was probably a seminal stain. (2) From the coincidence of well-formed and typical but detached heads of the spermatozoa, along with the reaction, he would affirm positively the pres- ence of semen. (8) With debris of sperm •■' ^.'.sia or even with perfectly-formed heads, but without the reaction, he would iwt feel certain that he was dealing with a stain produced by human semen. It will be noticed that Florence attaches to tho detached head of sperma- tozoa more significance than is accorded to them by our standard authorities. It must be mentioned that Florence has added materially to the data which may be used in identifying the heads of human spermatozoa, as the result of his careful study by means of oil immersion lenses and staining methods. By these more refined methods, highly characteristic details were brought out which would escape notice if ordinary dry lenses of moder&te magnification were the only ones employed. The illustrations of spermatozoa given iu his monograph are far superior to the illustrations which adorn the average medico-legal text-book, which are in many cases little more than caricatures. It must be remembered that the drying and subsequent moistening of the sper- matozoa have a tendency to deform them somewhat, so that the appearance Two instaiioes of atlvaiicetl and w«ll-iuarkutl diaoase of the seminal receptacles is obviously a very high proportion for only -i'i oases, iu lx>tli these two instauoes of organic disease the fact of iodine reaction being Interfered with while the spermatozoa were still present indicates the greater certainty of the spermatozoon test. 6 On the Iodine Teit for Semen. obtained may not always b« perfeoUy nniform. This tendency to deTiation would, however, be more likely to cauie human lemen to be confounded with that of animali, than the reverie. Personally, my experience doea not entitle me to ezpreit an opinion aa to the extent to which detached heada and taila of apermatozoa ahould be allowed to oonatitute evidence of aemen, but I think it will be a long time before anything leaa than the entire apermatoioon will be accepted aa legal tender by either judgea or juriea. I think it can be said with confidence that the iodine reaction of aemen, aa described by Florence, ia a decided atep in advance, and that in it we have a new and very promiaing preliminary and confirmatory teat for normal aemen, and one which givea relatively good reaulta in the caae of ataina which from a prolonged drying, react with diflSculty to the microscopic teat. The aourcee of fallacy which attend the iodine teat are, however, aa yet practically unknown. To determine what inference may be drawn from the absence of thia reac- tion in a auspected atain, we need much fuller information and experimenta on the effects of external conditions, etc., upon subatancea known to be atained by semen ; we also need information aa to the extent to which pathological con* ditiona may exert a modifying influence, how the age limit affecta the reaction, and on many other pointa. Before we can aaaign accurately the aignificance of a poaitive reault, we re- quire much further testing and corroboration regarding the behavior of the re- agent with substances other than semen, and also with the semen of animals. After making all due allowance for thia we must rejoice at the success of M. Florence in discovering a crystalline reaction for semen. As a rule, a good crystalline is better than a color reaction and we may expect that fur- ther researches in this direction will lead to the discovery of new and valuable micro-chemical tests. yet