Produced by deaurider, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THE BARBARITY OF CIRCUMCISION AS A REMEDY FOR _CONGENITAL ABNORMALITY_ BY HERBERT SNOW, M.D. LOND. &c. SURGEON TO THE CANCER HOSPITAL [Illustration: Logo] LONDON J. & A. CHURCHILL 11 NEW BURLINGTON STREET 1890 PREFATORY NOTE To state that the object of this little work is to 'put down Circumcision' under the circumstances indicated, would, besides savouring of unpardonable arrogance, irresistibly suggest analogy to the example of a too famous alderman, who was determined to 'put down Suicide.' If, however, the facts and arguments therein set forth contribute in some small measure towards the abolition of an antiquated practice involving the infliction of very considerable suffering upon helpless infants; and sanctioned, on extremely questionable grounds, by men of eminent authority; the following pages will not have been written in vain. More evil is wrought by want of thought, Than comes from want of heart. GLOUCESTER PLACE, PORTMAN SQUARE: _October 1890_. THE BARBARITY OF CIRCUMCISION AS A REMEDY FOR CONGENITAL ABNORMALITY. I CIRCUMCISION AS A RELIGIOUS RITE. The earliest historical or quasi-historical notice of circumcision is to be found in Genesis xvii.; where Jahve enjoins upon Abraham the personal performance of this mutilation, as a sign of the covenant henceforward to subsist between them. Abraham, his son Ishmael, and all his male slaves forthwith underwent the prescribed operation; which thence-forward remained obligatory upon their posterity, though not without transient periods of desuetude. It was suffered to lapse during the passage of the Israelites through the wilderness, and was subsequently revived by Joshua (v. 5); again in the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, when some of the Jews seem to have submitted to a plastic operation in order to obliterate its effects.[1] The compulsory performance of circumcision was re-enacted for the last time by Mattathias, in the age of the Maccabees; and the law to this effect has remained in force until the present day.[2]