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Foreskin Facts

Circumcision was practiced in Egypt as long ago as 4000 B. C. According to the inscription on this bas-relief from the Ankh-Mahor tomb at Sakkara, the youth on the right accepts the foreskin surgery, but his companion balks and must be held by the doctor's aide.

Can't say I don't blame him.

Male masturbation had been regarded as a religious sin since Biblical times, but in the 18th Century science took over. Onania, or the Heinous Sin of Self-Pollution, And All Its Frightful Consequences, in Both Sexes, Considered was published in 19 editions and sold 38,000 copies before 1750. Masturbation, the book said, was not only a religious sin but a medical problem that caused physical and mental disease.

Doctors began to promote circumcision in the 1850s as a cure for masturbation, then seen as a cause of insanity, epilepsy, hysteria, tuberculosis, short-sightedness and death.

Parents looked to physicians for answers, and the physicians responded with alacrity. Some doctors recommended covering the penis with plaster of Paris, leather, or rubber; cauterization; making boys wear chastity belts or spiked rings; and in extreme cases, castration.

Evidently, it was a commonly held belief the foreskin could cause "nocturnal incontinence," hysteria, epilepsy, and irritation that might "give rise to erotic stimulation and, consequently, masturbation." Another physician, P.C. Remondino, added that "circumcision is like a substantial and well-secured life annuity "...it insures better health, greater capacity for labor, longer life, less nervousness, sickness, loss of time, and less doctor bills."

No wonder it became a popular remedy ...

In Finland, where infant circumcision does not take place, only one man in 16,667 has undergone adult circumcision.

Foreskins removed from babies are in great demand by biomedical companies who use them in the manufacture of insulin and for producing artificial skin. A single foreskin is said to be able to grow 250,000 square feet of skin.

An individual born without eyelids underwent eyelid transplant surgery with foreskins. He's reported doing fine except for being cockeyed.

Last year, during the "circumcision season" in South Africa, when manhood rituals take place, there were five penis amputations and 12 deaths due to botched ceremonies.

In May this year David Reimer committed suicide aged 38. He first became famous as living proof that gender is decided socially. He was castrated very young after a circumcision went wrong and destroyed his penis. He was given hormone treatment and "successfully" bought up as a girl, Brenda. Later he rebelled and insisted on recovering his male identity.

There are websites devoted to what is known as "recreational or fetish circumcision". These contain erotic fantasies about forcefully circumcising a man and collecting foreskins. Members "share stories and pictures of circumcision".

A woman who is only sexually aroused by circumcised males is called an "acucullophile".

Freelance circumciser Omunnakwe Amechi was charged last year in a London court with wounding two boys aged 14 and 19 months when he operated on them in their front rooms. The boys had to go to hospital and needed transfusions and corrective surgery. Amechi declared that he had been circumcising since 1995.

He claims to have never accepted payment for his services.

He only accepted tips :-)

Paul Ellis