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There is certainly some truth in these claims; but some conservative surgeons point out that for the great majority of boys all these advantages may be obtained by reasonable attention to hygienic habits, that orthodox Jewish and other circumcised boys are by no means free from harmful habits, that some boys are more irritable after circumcision, that preputial stretching is often a good substitute for circumcision, and that the taunts of other boys often make circumcised boys too conscious of their own mutilation.
In his "History of Circumcision," Remondino says that among the modern Berbers it is not unusual for a warrior to exhibit virile members of persons he has slain; he also says that, according to Bergman, the Israelites practiced preputial mutilations; David brought 200 prepuces of the Philistines to Saul.
Among some of the religious mendicants in India there were some who were condemned to a life of chastity, and, in the hotter climates, where nudity was the custom, these persons traveled about exposing an enormous preputial ring, which was looked upon with adoration by devout women.
Whether it was with the intention of placing themselves beyond the possibility of breaking their vow, or of giving evidence of their constancy, certain it is that they loaded their prepuce with an enormous fibula, or ring; and, in their warm climate, where nudity does not shock ideas of propriety or decency, devout women not unfrequently repaired to these soi-disant saints, to admire and venerate such efforts of virtue and self-denial; they are even reported to have knelt down, and, in that humiliating posture, to have kissed the preputial ring, no doubt with the vain hope of thereby obtaining indulgences.
Musk, a substance possessing the most penetrating odor and used in therapeutics, is obtained from the preputial follicles of the musk-deer of Thibet; and castor, a substance less penetrating, is obtained from the preputial sacs of the beaver. Bulimia is excessive morbid hunger, also called canine appetite.
Vanzetti reports the removal of a preputial calculus weighing 224 grams. Phillipe mentions the removal of a calculus weighing 50 grams from the prepuce of an Arab boy of seven. Croft gives an account of some preputial calculi removed from two natives of the Solomon Islands by an emigrant medical officer in Fiji.