[150] _Burdach_, Die Physiologie als Erfahrungswissenschaft, (Physiology as an Experimental Science), 2nd. edition, Vol. I. p. 196.—_Boerhaave_, Tract. de lue venerea, (Treatise on Venereal Contagion), Venice 1753., p. 6., says, In Asia ad partes genitales sub praeputio naturaliter sordes colliguntur, quae acres redditae generant multa mala, quae praecipue ad luem veneream accedere proxime videntur; non vere sunt lues venerea; imo nostri nautae hoc etiam experiuntur, dum in illis terris degunt, nam nisi quotidie praeputium eluerent aqua salsa et aceto, vel similibus remediis brevi eodem morbo laborarent. (In Asia filth of sorts naturally enough collects on the genital parts beneath the prepuce, and this turning sour originates many complaints, which seem above all others to approximate closely to the Venereal disease. This our sailors found out, when living in those regions; for if they did not daily thoroughly wash the prepuce with salt water and vinegar, or similar remedies, they would soon suffer from the disease in question). [151] _Thevenot_, Travels, Pt. I., p. 58., says, “The Arabs in fact have the prepuce so long that, if they did not have it circumcised, they would suffer much inconvenience from it; and little children are to be seen among them whose prepuce hangs down to a very considerable length;—not to mention that, supposing their foreskin uncircumcised, every time after passing water some drops would remain behind, rendering them unclean.” [152] _Niebuhr_, Beschreibung von Arabien, (Description of Arabia) Copenhagen 1772. 4to., p. 77. [153] _Josephus_, Contra Apionem bk. II. ch. 13., ὅθεν εἰκότως μοι δοκεῖ τῆς εἰς τοὺς πατρίους αὐτοῦ νόμους βλασφημίας δοῦναι δίκην Ἀπίων τὴν πρέπουσαν· περιετμήθη γὰρ ἐξ ἀνάγκης, _ἑλκώσεως αὐτῷ περὶ τὸ αἰδοῖον γενομένης_· καὶ μηδὲν ὠφεληθεὶς ὑπὸ τῆς περιτομῆς ἀλλὰ σηπόμενος ἐν δειναῖς ὀδύναις ἀπέθανεν. (for translation see text). The expression περὶ τὸ αἰδοῖον (about the privates) is evidently to be understood here as meaning the _glans penis_, or at any rate the prepuce. This is implied by the general sense of the whole passage. [154] _Philo_, De circumcisione, Works edit. Th. Mangey Vol. II. p. 211. Ἓν μὲν, χαλεπῆς νόσου καὶ δυσιάτου πάθους ἀπαλλαγὴν, ἣν _ἄνθρακα καλοῦσιν_, ἀπὸ τοῦ καίειν ἐντυφόμενον, ὡς οἶμαι, ταύτης τῆς προσηγορίας τυχόντος, ἥτις οὐ κολώτερον τοῖς τὰς ἀκροποσθίας ἔχουσιν ἐγγίνετο· Δεύτερον, τὴν δι’ ὅλου τοῦ σώματος καθαρότητα πρὸς τὸ ἁρμόττειν τάξει ἱερωμένῃ. Παρ’ ὃ καὶ ξυρῶντο τὰ σώματα προσυπερβάλλοντες οἱ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ τῶν ἱερέων. ὑποσυλλέγετο γὰρ καὶ ὑποστέλλει καὶ θριξὶ καὶ ποσθίαις ἔνια τῶν ὀφειλόντων καθαίρεσθαι. (for translation see text above).