To the case of boys past the early years of childhood, and still more to that of adults, the arguments in favour of the substitution of a simple dilatation-process for the unnecessarily severe operation of circumcision, apply with redoubled force. As in these no symptoms directing attention to the phimosis have previously existed for any length of time, it may be taken at once for granted that, however tight the so-called 'contraction' may seem on inspection, the condition is present in only a minor degree; that under an anæsthetic the adhesions will yield to very slight force, and satisfactory retraction, with subsequent free mobility, be procured without the slightest difficulty. With adults, moreover, the avoidance of any need for confinement to bed, of even to the house, is an important consideration. In such the tissues are necessarily more elastic and less fragile than in young infants; there is much less prospect of laceration, with consequent tenderness and swelling. An operation for the relief of congenital phimosis advocated by Mr. Furneaux Jordan (_British Medical Journal_, May 2, 1863) may be here alluded to. Mr. Jordan passes one blade of a small round-pointed scissors (Critchett's strabismus-scissors answer well) through the orifice; skin and mucous membrane are divided to the length of a quarter of an inch on one side, the same being repeated on the other. The prepuce is now retracted as far as possible; this exposes more lining membrane between the lips of the wound, and this again is divided by a second incision on each side. The operation is now complete, and the foreskin may easily be retracted. The incisions which were made in the long axis of the penis after retraction become linear in a vertical direction, and almost imperceptible in the circular folds of retracted foreskin. In the after-treatment the prepuce should be kept back, or frequently retracted. In children retraction once daily for a week or ten days, till the wounds have healed, is quite sufficient. The extent of the incisions should, of course, be a little less in children, a little greater in the adult.