Dr. Mastin, in _Gaillard's Medical Journal_, speaks of the great frequency with which he has been consulted by Jews for chronic urethral discharges, irritable urethra, and other affections of the genito-urinary organs. He describes 'the preternaturally small meatus which results from early removal of the prepuce by circumcision.' (_Medical Record_, December 10, 1885.) Elsewhere in the same periodical (_Medical Record_, vol. xxi.) we are informed that 95 per cent. of young male Jew adults have this contracted meatus. Shorn of its natural protective covering, the muco-cutaneous covering of the glans soon becomes true dermoid tissue. Mr. J. Hutchinson (_loc. cit._) speaks of 'every one who is acquainted with the effects of circumcision in rendering the delicate mucous membrane of the glans hard and skin-like.' Contact with the clothing, &c., necessarily induces a chronic inflammatory condition of the part, followed commonly by contraction and condensation. We cannot with impunity rashly interfere with any of Nature's dispositions, however seemingly insignificant. This hard skinlike condition of the integument upon the glans penis, with its concomitant of narrowed urethral aperture, may be regarded as the normal result of circumcision. In the hands of bungling operators, however, far worse consequences may follow. Thus J. Bell (_Manual of Operations in Surgery_, 1866) 'has known the glans penis included in the incision in _at least_ one instance.' (The italics are his own.) Mr. Reginald Harrison (_Diseases of Urinary Organs_, 3rd Edition, 1887) has treated two _varieties_ of urethral stricture after circumcision which have not turned out well; in two _cases_, the extremity of the glans penis, including the meatus, had been wounded in making the section of the prepuce; in a third, owing to 'oedema and difficulty of ascertaining where the glans was, amputation had been performed, and the end of the glans included.' The second variety of stricture was caused by the prepuce being divided too high up, or, what amounts to the same thing, being drawn down too much over the glans penis, before being included in the forceps for the purpose of making the necessary section. On bringing together the parts with sutures, the tension on them was so great as to cause ulceration, and to leave behind a broad cicatrix, capable of exercising a contractile pressure on the under surface of the urethra; sufficient to impede micturition and to cause other discomfort.'[19]