If the writer is not greatly in error, an impression prevails in some quarters that _Moses_ either instituted anew or effectually perpetuated the rite of circumcision among the Israelites; as a useful measure of sanitation. However deservedly high the reputation of the great Hebrew lawgiver as a sanitarian, he does not seem entitled to credit in this connection; and alludes but casually to the ceremony, as to an already well-established custom, among certain directions for the treatment of the parturient woman at Leviticus xxii. 3. There is plainly no question of hygiene here involved. Dr. Asher (_The Jewish Rite of Circumcision_) considers that CHASTITY was the main purpose aimed at in the Divine injunction to Abraham; but, for reasons subsequently adduced, such a theory will be seen to have no foundation in fact.[7] As the present is not an antiquarian treatise, only a very cursory historic or ethnic account of ritual circumcision is here inserted; many other curious and interesting particulars may be found in the authorities cited at the end of this volume, as well as in the copious German literature on the same subject. All that has been attempted in the preceding pages is to exhibit the custom in its original character; and (in so far as the pretensions advanced upon its behalf as a surgical procedure are concerned), divested of the traditional sanctity which is possibly largely answerable for some of the views promulgated by medical authors; whereby the general habit and practice of the medical profession become also of necessity deeply tinged.[8] FOOTNOTES: [1] An account of the operation (seemingly then not infrequently resorted to) performed at a much later date for the above purpose, is to be found in _Celsus_, lib. vii. cap. xxv. [2] According to Keating's _Cyclopædia of the Diseases of Children_, 1890, vol. iii., some of the rabbins now omit it; "in the teeth of a strong and growing popular prejudice." I am informed, however, by the Rev. S. Singer, to whom I am greatly indebted for a courteous reply to inquiry on the subject, that these congregations would not be regarded as orthodox; and that the innovation is unknown in the Old World. [3] In the _Lancet_ of April 20, 1889, is figured a curious circumcising Instrument used by the Malays, who perform the rite upon boys at the age of eight years; and also upon females, about 1/8th inch being nipped off the extremity of the clitoris. In the ceremony performed on female children, variations exist; other tribes remove the nymphæ. [4] _La Couvade_ was the designation of the unwritten law, according to which, directly an infant was brought into the world, the husband retired to bed and was sedulously nursed for a certain prescribed period; the mother, on the other hand, getting up and attending to the affairs of the household. Tylor speaks of it as "this once world-wide custom" (_Primitive Culture_, i. 76).