Tan Ah Tah J:

This was a petition by the woman for a decree of nullity of marriage on the ground of the respondent's inability to consummate the marriage. The respondent did not defend the petition.

The parties were married in 1953 at the Registry of Marriages, Singapore. Several attempts were made by the respondent to consummate the marriage but in each case he failed to effect intromissio at the crucial moment as he could not maintain erectio. They lived together for nearly two years before she left him. The medical inspectors appointed by the Court, reported to the effect that the husband's parts were anatomically normal and that he was apparently capable of performing the act of generation and that the wife was found to be virgo intacta, and that there was no impediment on her part to prevent consummation of the marriage.

Francis T Seow for the petitioner addressed on two propositions, viz:

(1) Consummation as understood in law, and

(2) The law of impotence with emphasis on the doctrine ofimpotentia quoad hunc vel hanc.

On his first proposition he submitted that consummation in the proper meaning of the term is ordinary and complete sexual intercourse. The former