. This is no easy operation, and in
later times by the aid of appliances, both in Rome and in Spain, they
undertook to cause the skin to recover the glans. Martial, in speaking
of the instrument used in Rome, a sort of a long funnel-shaped copper
tube in which the Hebrew carried his virile organ, terms it _Judaem
Pondum_, the weight of which, by drawing down the skin, was supposed in
time to draw it down far enough to answer the purpose. The apostle Paul,
in his epistle to the Corinthians, refers to these practices when he
says, "Was any one called being circumcised, let him not be
uncircumcised." The operation of reforming a prepuce, or of obliterating
the marks of circumcision, does not appear to have been a success.

The writer had one experience that was interesting. On one occasion he
advised circumcision for the relief of a reflex nervous disease, in a
tall, athletic Austrian sailor from the Adriatic; although the nature of
the operation was explained to the man, he evidently did not appreciate
its full nature and importance until a sweeping cut with a scalpel left
the excised prepuce in the operator's hand. Most Adriatic sailors have
sailed up the Bosphorus and are more or less familiar with both the
Greek and Turkish nations; the latter they despise with gusto, "_porchi
di Turci_" being the affectionate appellation they bestow on their
national neighbors. No sooner did he perceive the real condition of
affairs than he began to beat his head, saying that he was disgraced
forever, as he never would dare to associate with his countrymen again,
as he would be liable to be taken for a _porcho di Turco_; his frenzy
increased to such a pitch that to spare any unpleasantness it was deemed
advisable to replace the prepuce, which was done accordingly, the man
making a tolerable good recovery, as far as the grafted prepuce was
concerned. It required a secondary operation to overcome some
cicatricial contraction, and, on the whole, he had a very serviceable
prepuce; but, what was more to the point, it prevented his ever being
mistaken for a Turk.

CHAPTER VII.

MIRACLES AND THE HOLY PREPUCE.

What strange fancies have circled themselves about the subject of
generation or its organisms during the different stages of moral
civilization since the world has existed! The efforts in this regard
among different creeds have been something peculiar. Neither Mohammedans
nor Hebrews--both zealous circumcisers--ever went to