Dr. Holgate, of the out-door department of Bellevue, considered that all phimosic cases have adhesions; while Dr. Moses, of New York, out of some fifty circumcisions performed at the eighth day, found only adhesions three times.[87] These observations are, however, in perfect accord. If we connect the statement of Dr. Arnold, in regard to the increasing character of the firmness in the adhesions of the adult, with the statement of Dr. 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; this is evident also from the statement of Dr. Moses, who only found six per cent. of the cases operated upon by him as being so affected. The writer has been present at a large number of Hebrew circumcisions performed on the eighth day, and from that up to the sixth month (as in many communities they wait until a number of children are collected, so to speak, before sending for the mohel, who may reside at quite a distance), and in all of those witnessed he has never seen any complications from adhesions; but cases of adhesion have been often encountered from the second to the eighth year, and it has always been the case, as a rule, that the older the child the greater the firmness of the adhesion. In these cases the practice generally advised of using a probe is not practicable, as the person is more apt to wound the sound prepuce than to tear the adhesions; the practice most effectual is to hold the glans firmly but gently with the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, and then to draw the prepuce as firmly back with its fold held in the forefinger and thumb of the other. It is a more expeditious mode, and the least painful; by this method extensive adhesions can readily be broken up; vaselin and a piece of fine lint should then be interposed for a couple of days to prevent a re-adherence. Another co-existing condition with phimosis, very often found, is a shortening of the frenum. Dr. Jansen, out of 3700 soldiers of the Belgian army, found 12.3 per cent. with this pathological condition and 2.5 per cent. with a narrow prepuce.[88]