“Extrait des Annales d’hygiène publique et de médicine légale, 2e série, tome VIII." Tardieu divided his book on "sexual crimes" into three parts: the first deals with indecent exposures, the second with rape, and the third with "pederasty" (sexual relations between an older and a younger man), written before the term homosexuality was coined.

Tardieu analyzed 632 cases of sexual abuse in females (mostly children) and 302 cases in males, describing physical signs according to the severity of the abuse.

Neither the first or the second (1858) editions were illustrated. The third edition (1859) contained 3 plates, two of which showed evidence of abuse in female genitalia. The fourth edition (1862) was the first to include a fourth plate depicting a passive male sodomite's anus. Digital facsimiles of the first and second editions are available from BnF Gallica. Digital facsimile of the expanded fifth edition (1867) from the Internet Archive at this link.