Circumcision

“ For the circumcision according to the flesh, which is from Abraham, was given for a sign; that you may be separated from other nations, and from us; and that you alone may suffer that which you now justly suffer; and that your land may be desolate, and your cities burned with fire; and that strangers may eat your fruit in your presence, and not one of you may go up to Jerusalem. [35] For you are not recognised among the rest of men by any other mark than your fleshly circumcision. ”

“ If the circumcision has been properly and carefully performed, so that the whole of the mucous membrane and skin are kept back by the dressing, and the whole of the glans remains exposed, nothing further need be done but to replace some fresh gauze over the glans. On the following day the whole of the dressing should be removed, and gauze be re-applied around the penis leaving the end of the glans free. This dressing will fall off when the infant is in the bath, and may be renovated as often as necessary. ”

“ As a surgical operation, circumcision is commonly performed with so much impunity that many surgeons will probably not be disposed to admit the possibility of its being attended by any danger to life; and there can be no doubt that it is but seldom followed by a fatal result. ”

“ There is one thing that must be admitted concerning circumcision: this being that, among medical men or men of ordinary intelligence who have had the operation performed, instead of being dissatisfied, they have extended the advantages they have themselves received, by having those in their charge likewise operated upon. The practice is now much more prevalent than is supposed, as there are many Christian families where males are regularly circumcised soon after birth, who simply do so as a hygienic measure. ”

“ No one, however, should circumcise himself or his son for any other reason but pure faith; for circumcision is not like an incision on the leg, or a burning in the arm, but a very difficult operation. ”

“ It would seem as if the desire to avoid such an accident—provided persons knew the dangers that lurk in a prepuce—would induce many to submit to circumcision. That many more do not do so can only be attributed to the general human wish to escape a less present evil for a greater unknown one, being evidently deterred by the prospective pain that must be suffered immediately.
[247] There is a question that should interest man above that of the simple loss of penis. ”

“ III. The surgical operation of circumcision, especially where infants are concerned, has therefore to be discussed solely on its own merits, wholly apart from any theory of Divine intentions, based upon theological considerations. It appears to be erroneous in principle.
IV. It consists in a mutilation; in the removal of a perfectly normal structure, with which, for patent physiological reasons, every male child is endowed by nature. The morality of such a practice, without grave necessity, is open to question. ”

“ The area of the circumcision wound extends between the corona of the glans and the circular cut edge of the skin. The skin of the penis always retracts, so that if the shield has been placed in the position previously indicated, the skin will not after the circumcision reach quite up to the corona; the neck of the glans will be well exposed. This is the condition to be attained in ritual circumcision. ”

“ It is surely not needful to seek any recondite motive for the origin of the practice of circumcision. No one who has seen the superior cleanliness of a Hebrew penis can have avoided a very strong impression in favour of the removal of the foreskin. It constitutes a harbour for filth, and is a constant source of irritation. ”

“ Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free use it rather.”—1 Cor. vii, 18-21. Thus distinctly does Paul recognize circumcision as still being, to the Jews, a commandment of God; as exemption from it was to the Gentiles. And it need scarcely be said, that circumcision here stands for the whole law. ”

“ All the arteries and veins of the penis run in the deep structures previously alluded to, so that circumcision, in an infant at any rate, can never wound a blood vessel. The Frænum is freely supplied with blood, and if cut will produce troublesome hæmorrhage, but a circumcision in no way interferes with this part. ”

“ The circumcision which was so frequent in primordial times among primitive races belongs to the period of initiation in which its meaning is to be found; it has only secondarily been relegated to an earlier time of life. It is very interesting that among primitive men circumcision is combined with or replaced by the cutting off of the hair and the drawing of teeth, and that our children, who cannot know anything about this, really treat these two operations as equivalents to castration when they display their fear of them. ”

“ As already observed, this operation admits of the patient following his business; whereas circumcision, on the male, will assuredly lay him up for four or five days, and perhaps ten days,—something that many, be they rich or poor, cannot afford, and will not submit to.
The cosmetic condition of the penis as a copulating organ is a thing of some importance, and this should not be overlooked ”

“ Gross does not mention this affection in his work on surgery, but Agnew devotes considerable space to its description, dividing the disease into two forms: the inflammatory, such as may follow venereal primary sores or operations on the penis, not excepting circumcision; and the obstructive variety, such as may follow embolism or any mechanical obstruction, either purposely or accidentally applied. ”

“ The ordinary way of performing the operation by modern surgeons is by what is known as the Bumstead circumcision. It was not an invention of Bumstead, but was adopted by him in preference to all others. The requisites are a sharp-pointed bistoury, blunt-pointed scissors, and a pair of Henry’s phimosis forceps, with fine needles and fine oculists’ suture silk. The penis is allowed to hang naturally and the position of the corona glandis marked on the outer skin with a pen and ink, which is to serve as a guide for the incision. ”

“ In the conclusion to be reached, circumcision is not put forward as the only exempting element or preventive measure that deserves all the credit for the immunity that the Jews enjoy from syphilis, or to the absence of hereditary diseases that are secondary or due to the presence of that disease in the parents, as considerable credit is to be given to the well-known chastity of their females. ”

“ As regards circumcision, I think that one of its objects is to limit sexual intercourse, and to weaken the organ of generation as far as possible, and thus cause man to be moderate. Some people believe that circumcision is to remove a defect in man’s formation; but every one can easily reply: How can products of nature be deficient so as to require external completion, especially as the use of the fore-skin to that organ is evident. This commandment has not been enjoined as a complement to a deficient physical creation, but as a means for perfecting man’s moral shortcomings. ”

“ Simple dilatation, even if practicable, is not always sufficient, but should be combined with incisions of as limited a nature as possible. Mr. Furneaux Jordan's operation is then useful.
XI. In the event of disease, the operation of circumcision is not devoid of risk, and should be reserved as far as possible for extreme cases, in which removal of the whole prepuce is obviously a matter of necessity. [29]
XII. In healthy children the operation seems to be rarely fatal in this country. Many cases of death directly traceable to circumcision have, however, been reported on the Continent. ”

“ If circumcision is done early,—during the first two weeks of life,—the operation is without danger and practically without pain. In quite a considerable percentage of all males, circumcision is an absolute necessity. For excellent medical reasons, about which your family physician can inform you, every boy should be circumcised. ”

“ Originally, circumcision must have consisted of the simple removal of the foreskin, and the elaboration of the ceremonial details must have been a subsequent occurrence; persons wounding their fingers will instinctively carry them to their mouth, and it may be that the suction practiced by the Hebrews had its origin in this natural hæmostatic suggestion. Wine as a hæmostatic and as an emblem of thanksgiving and an acceptable offering naturally came in as an accessory. ”

“ Girls are circumcised when some of them in the settlement have reached marriage age. They are shaved, given aperients, have to put on men's clothes, which they receive from their lovers, and take their clubs, loin bells, etc. After three days' ceremonial the [Pg 113] circumcision is performed in the morning, at which the mothers and some old women are present; men are only admitted when they have lost several brothers and sisters in succession. The mothers run about crying and shouting during the operation. Only the clitoris is cut out. ”

“ Bernheim, that the first erection is often sufficient to break up the existing adhesions in the infant, we must conclude that they are nothing more at first than a slight agglutination, which the slight manipulation required to properly locate the position of the glans, and to space out the prepuce preparatory to the operation of circumcision, must, in the majority of cases, be sufficient to liberate the prepuce from the glans ”

“ It is worthy of note that many eminent physicians now advocate the custom of circumcision, claiming that the removal of a little of the foreskin induces cleanliness, thus preventing the irritation and excitement which come from the gathering of the whiteish matter under the foreskin at the beginning of the glands. This irritation being removed, the boy is less apt to tamper with his sexual organs. The argument seems a good one, especially when we call to mind the high physical state of those people who have practiced the custom. ”

“ We don't circumcise the third one until he is grown up and reached his full strength because he might die. This is the law if a man had a son and he died from the circumcision, he had another who died from the circumcision we don't circumcise the third one whether they were from one wife or from two. ”

“ In such cases,—like in stricture of the meatus,—any mechanical interference short of cutting with a knife only aggravates the existing difficulty, and it is not uncommon to have such cases apply for assistance after they have in vain tried to dilate the constricting preputial orifice. In the early writings of the Greeks, it is mentioned that among the Egyptians circumcision exempted them from a certain form of disease that affected the penis. ”

“ The direction of the shield is important. It must not be put on at right angles to the penis, but obliquely upwards, i.e., the part of the shield held in the hand must incline towards [31] the abdomen of the infant, and the other part away from it. In this way the circumcision will take off the foreskin in a quill shape, and it will leave a sufficient amount of skin on the under surface of the penis. If this precaution is not observed there is a great risk of denuding the under surface of the skin almost as far as the scrotum. ”

“ They think that the spirit enters the body of the lad after the operation of circumcision has been performed and carries him away into the bush, keeping him there till his wound is healed. While the newly circumcised youth is out in the wilds, carefully secluded from the sight of the women and children, he constantly sounds the bull-roarer. ”

“ In the general plan of the work, I have adopted the idea and the historical relation carried out by Bergmann, of Strasburg, who included all the mutilations practiced on the genitals while discussing the subject of circumcision, they being, in the originality of performance, somewhat intimately connected; this also tends to make the subject more interesting as a contribution to the natural history of man,—something in which all intelligent persons are more or less interested. ”

“ Female circumcision, however, is I believe the rule amongst some outlying tribes of Jews. The rite is the proper complement of male circumcision, evening the sensitiveness of the genitories by reducing it equally in both sexes: an uncircumcised woman has the venereal orgasm much sooner and oftener than a circumcised man, and frequent coitus would injure her health ”

“ Neither are physicians all of one accord on the subject as to whether circumcision is a benefit, or, being useless, a dangerous and an unnecessary operation. The writer is most emphatically in favor of circumcision, and has the fullest faith in the positive moral and physical benefits that mankind gains from the operation. ”

“ Doubtless, the so-called circumcision of women, as it is practised in some countries, is a modification of what we understand by the term, and involves structures other than the clitoris or nymphæ; and it is equally true that the custom is adopted by many races totally irrespective of any religious significance. ”