History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present Part 14

[45] _Occidental Medical Times_, Sacramento, Cal., October, 1890, page 543.

[46] "Dictionaire des Sciences Medicales," vol. x.x.xi., page 41.

[47] _British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review_, vol. xviii, 1856.

[48] "L'Hermaphrodite devant le Code Civil." Debierre.

[49] Sir Thomas Brown's works, vol. ii, "Religio Medici."

[50] "The Bible and other Ancient Literature in the Nineteenth Century." L. T. Townsend, D.D. Chautauqua press, 1889. See pages 32-45.

[51] "The Religions of the Ancient World." George Rawlinson, M.A.

Alden edition of 1885. Page 174.

[52] "The Intellectual Development of Europe." John W. Draper. Vol.

ii, page 113.

[53] _Ibid._ vol. ii, page 122.

[54] In "Clarke's Commentary," vol. i, page 113, the reason of choosing the eighth day is given. Circ.u.mcision was not only a covenant, but an offering to G.o.d; and all born, whether human or animal, were considered unclean previous to the eighth day.

Neither calf, lamb, or kid was offered to G.o.d until it was eight days old.--Lev., xxii, 27.

[55] A father circ.u.mcised his children and the master his slaves. In case of neglect the operation was performed by the magistrate.

If its neglect was unknown to the magistrate, then it became the duty of the Hebrew, upon arriving of age, to either do it himself or have it done.--"Clarke's Commentary," vol. i, page 113.

[56] Bishop Newton points out the remarkable a.n.a.logy that marks the Hebrew race as descendants of Isaac and the Arab race as the descendants of Ishmael, from whom sprung the Saracenic people.

These are the only two races that have gone on in their purity from their beginning. They intermarry only among themselves and have, alike, the same customs and habits as their fathers.

The sculptured faces of the Hebrew on the Babylonian monuments are the same faces that are met in the synagogues of Paris or New York. So with the descendants of Ishmael, in whom there flows partly the blood of the dominant element of ancient Egypt; neither custom, habit, nor physiognomy have changed. In these two races, as observed by Bishop Newton, we have an ocular demonstration of the Divine origin of our faith, if verification of Scripture history is any criterion.--"Clarke's Commentary," vol. i, page 111; also, Hosmer's "Story of the Jews," page 5.

[57] "Cause Morale de la Circoncision." Vanier, du Havre. Pages 40-45.

[58] "De la Circoncision." Par le Dr. S. Bernheim. Page 7. Paris, 1889.

[59] "Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature," vol. ii, page 350.

[60] Among the Semitic race, however, it seems possible to bring forward better evidence than this of an early Stone Age. If we follow one way of translating we find, in two pa.s.sages of the Old Testament, an account of the use of sharp stones or stone knives for circ.u.mcision,--Exodus, iv, 25: "And Zipporah took a stone"; and Joshua, v, 2: "At that time Jehovah said to Joshua, Make thee knives of stone." ... The Septuagint altogether favors the opinion that the knives in question were of stone, by reading, in the first place, a stone or pebble, and, in the second, stone knives of sharp-cut stone. These are mentioned again in the remarkable pa.s.sage which follows the account of the death and burial of Joshua (Joshua, xxiv, 29, 30),--"And it came to pa.s.s, after these things, that Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died, being a hundred and ten years old, and they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath Serah, which is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash." Here follows, in the LXX, a pa.s.sage not in the Hebrew text, which has come down to us: "And there they laid with him in the tomb, wherein they buried him there, the stone knives wherewith he circ.u.mcised the children of Israel at the Gilgals, when he led them out of Egypt, as the Lord commanded. And they are there unto this day." The rabbinical law, in connection with this subject, reads as follows: "We may circ.u.mcise with anything, even with a flint, with crystal (gla.s.s), or with anything that cuts, except with the sharp edge of a reed, because enchanters made use of that, or it may bring on a disease; and it is a precept of the wise men to circ.u.mcise with iron, whether in the form of a knife or scissors, but it is customary to use a knife." This mention of the objectionable nature of the reed as a circ.u.mcising medium is attributed to the danger that may arise from splinters. The Fiji Islanders use both a rattan knife and a sharp splinter of bamboo in performing circ.u.mcision and in cutting the umbilical cord at child-birth.

Herodotus mentions the use of stone knives by the Egyptian embalmers. Stone knives were supposed to produce less inflammation than those of bronze or iron, and it was for this reason that the Cybelian priests operated upon themselves with a sherd of Samian ware (Samia testa), as thus avoiding danger.

There seems, on the whole, to be a fair case for believing that among the Israelites, as in Arabia, Ethiopia, and Egypt, a ceremonial use of stone instruments long survived the general adoption of metal, and that such observances are to be interpreted as relics of an earlier Stone Age.--"Researches into the Early History of Mankind." By Edward B. Tylor. Pages 217-220. London, 1870.

[61] The cannibals of Australia do not eat white people, as the flesh of these produces a nausea, which the flesh of the vegetable-fed blacks does not do. The rice-fed Chinese are considered a treat, and these are slaughtered in great number, ten Chinamen having been served up at one dinner.--"Among Cannibals." By Carl Lumholtz. Page 273.

[62] "Cause Moral de la Circoncision." Par le Dr. Vanier. Page 266.

[63] _Ibid._, page 288.

[64] _Cincinnati Clinic_, vol. ii, page 165.

[65] "The Story of the Jews." Hosmer. Page 263.

[66] "Traite d'Hygiene, publique et privee." Michel Levy. 2d.

edition, vol. ii, page 754.

[67] _Ibid._

[68] "Diseases of Modern Life." B. W. Richardson. Page 19.

[69] "Longevity and other Biostatic Peculiarities of the Jewish Race." By John Stockton Hough, M.D. _New York Med. Record_, 1873.

[70] "Vital Statistics of the Jews." By Dr. John S. Billings. _North American Review_, No. 1, vol. 152, page 70, January, 1891.

[71] "On Regimen and Longevity." By John Bell, M.D. Page 13.

[72] _British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review_, vol. xliii, page 539.

[73] _Ibid._, vol. xlii, page 17.

[74] In "Influence of the Trades on Health," Thakrah mentions the peculiar exemption enjoyed in this regard by the butcher cla.s.s. He quotes Tweedie in saying that he never saw a butcher admitted to the fever hospital.

[75] Lancereaux. "Distribution de la Phthisie Pulmonaire."

[76] Ashhurst. "Int. Enc. Surgery."

[77] Horner. "Naval Practice."

[78] _Cincinnati Lancet and Observer._, vol. xvi, 1873.

[79] It may well be a question of some interest whether the atrophy of the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e in the aged may not at times be partly due to the compression exercised by the prepuce on the glans through reflex action, and whether at times the virility that is departing cannot be restored by circ.u.mcision in such cases. I have seen such results, being guided to the idea by the Biblical relation in the case of Abraham.

[80] This patient subsequently died of a uraemic complication following on an attack of fever. The man was in his prime, and had been of most exemplary habits. The fever that he had was, I had every reason to believe, directly due to the results of imperfect blood depuration incident on the irritability of his kidneys, which, retroactively, again allowed the uraemic condition to a.s.sume that dangerous degree that suddenly and very unexpectedly to his friends and family ushered the patient into eternity. This man had only been merely inconvenienced by his prepuce up to the time that it caused his death. It is interesting to observe what little trifles bring about the end of some men. The unlucky habit of putting the royal countenance on paper brought Louis XVI to a sudden halt at Varennes, and his head to the scaffold. The lucky meeting of the _aides_ of Bonaparte and Desaix between Novi and Marengo gave to France its empire and to Europe the enlightenment that was diffused by that event. If such trifles affect individuals and nations, we must not be astonished that the little useless prepuce should be endowed with the mischief-working power of the historical old cow and kerosene lamp that reduced Chicago to ashes.

[81] In the London _Lancet_ for 1885 there is a very interesting communication at page 46 on this subject. There is no doubt but that the prepuce offers the best skin-grafting material.

[82] In the seventeenth volume (third series) of "Guy's Hospital Reports" there is a most interesting report at page 243 of a case of skin-grafting that was performed by Thomas Bryant. The case was an extensive ulcer resulting from an injury. Bryant took some skin-grafts from the man's arm and some from a colored man in an adjoining bed. The account gives the daily report as taken from the note-book of Mr. Clarke, and is accompanied by a colored plate to ill.u.s.trate the subject; the proliferation of the black skin is astonis.h.i.+ng. In closing the report Mr. Clarke says: "But in the figures depicted the amount of increase in the black patches will be well seen. In ten weeks the four or five pieces of black skin, which together were not larger than a grain of barley, had grown twentyfold, and in an another month the black patch was more than one inch long by half an inch broad, the black centres of cutification having clearly grown very rapidly by the proliferation of their own black cells."

[83] _American Journal Med. Sciences_, vol. lx.

[84] "Circ.u.mcision." By Dr. A. B. Arnold, of Baltimore.

[85] "De la Circoncision." By Dr. S. Bernheim. Paris.

[86] The reader is referred to a very interesting paper detailing conditions of adhesions in the _American Journal Med.

Sciences_ for July, 1872. It is taken from the Hungarian of M.

Bokai.

[87] _New York Med. Journal_, vol. xxvi.

[88] _American Journal Med. Sciences_, vol. lx.

[89] Dr. Vanier describes this operation of Celsus mentioned by Vidal in his work on "Circ.u.mcision," at page 294, which consisted in making, by a circular incision immediately back of the glans, like in a circular amputation, a complete detachment of the integument from back of the corona. The p.e.n.i.s was then made to retreat into the sheath thus made and a short catheter introduced into the urethra, to the end of which the free end of the new preputial fold was made fast, a piece of oiled lint being interposed between the raw inner surface and the glans. Another operation consisted in forcibly drawing the integument forward and in making a number of transverse incisions in the integument so as to a.s.sist its extensibility. By these means it was drawn sufficiently forward so as to fasten it to a canula or catheter made fast in the urethra. But it can well be imagined that a person must possess the most exalted idea of the physiological needs of a prepuce and feel the most sensitive need of such an appendage to submit to the first of these operations, although it is more than probable that many Jews submitted to the operation in the days of Celsus to avoid being exiled or plundered of all their possessions. The resulting prepuce could not have been a much more unsightly appendage than that which ornaments the overburdened virile organ of many Christians, and there is no doubt but that in many cases they pa.s.sed muster.