ical sense as well as the existence of
the influence of that climatic fatalism so well described by Alfred
Haviland, and the presence of a fatalism of individual constitution as
well, which is either inherited or acquired. The idea that Charcot
elaborates, that, as the year passes successively through the hot and
the cold, through the dry and the wet season, with advancing age the
human body undergoes like changes, and diseases assume certain
characteristics, are also points that are overlooked; and nowhere is
this latter view seen to be more neglected than in the relations the
prepuce bears to infancy, prime and old age, as will be more fully
explained in the chapters in this book which treat of cancer and
gangrene. Admitting that Haviland has exaggerated the influence of
climate as an etiological factor in its specific influence in producing
certain diseases; or that M. Taine claims more than he should for his
"Theorie des Milieux," or influence of surroundings; or that Hutchinson
has drawn the hereditary and pedigreeal fatherhood of disease too
finely; it must also be admitted that the solid, tangible truths upon
which these authors have founded their premises are plainly visible to
the most skeptical; the architectural details of the superstructure may
be defective, but the foundation is permanent.

From the above outline it will be easier for the reader to follow out
the reasons, or the whys or wherefores, of the views expressed on
medicine in the course of the book; and, although I do not wish to enter
the medical field like a Peter the Hermit on a new crusade, to lure
thousands into the hands of the circumcisers, nor, as a new Mohammed,
promise the eternal bliss and glory of the seventh heaven to all the
circumcised, I ask of my professional brothers a calm and unprejudiced
perusal of the tangible and authentic facts that I have honestly
gathered and conscientiously commented upon from my field of vision,
which will be plainly presented in the following pages. I simply have
given the facts and my impressions: the reader is at liberty to draw his
own conclusions.

If I have been too tedious in the multiplication of incidents in support
of certain views, I must remind the reader that the verdict goes to him
who has the preponderance of testimony, and that many a lawsuit is lost
from the neglect, on the part of the loser, to secure all the available
testimony. Having brought the subject of circumcision before the b