AUSTRAL] \. 113 



primitive races. Tuberculosis and syphilis are doing 

 their insidious, cLeadly work among the survivors of war 

 and the ravages of acute infectious diseases, and their 

 complete extermination is only a question of time. 



THE MIKA OB KULPI OPERATION. 



This custom was first noticed by Eyre (1845) in the 

 country around the great Australian Bight, and is 

 well described by Professor Stuart of the University of 

 Sydney in a paper read before the Koyal Society of New 

 South Wales, June 3, 1896. The operation practically 

 consists in, generally at the age of puberty, cutting the 

 floor of the urethra so that it is slit completely open 

 from below, the cleft sometimes extending only half- 

 way back, sometimes the whole way back to the scro- 

 tum. Sometimes a mere perforation is made. The in- 

 tent of the operation is to prevent impregnation, and 

 came into use as a safeguard to prevent a too rapid in- 

 crease of the population, serving thus a useful purpose 

 in diminishing the struggle for existence. The opera- 

 tion consists in creating a partial or complete hypo- 

 spadias. "The incision is made with a sharp-edged 

 piece of quartz, shell, flint, or, in more recent times, 

 glass. These, fixed with resin, twine, etc., into handles, 

 constitute the 'mika-knives.' The bleeding is stanched 

 with sand, and the edges of the wound are burnt, Lem- 

 holz says, with hot stones — perhaps, as Etheridge sug- 

 gests, to cauterize them — and keep from adhering again 

 and healing by being kept apart with bits of stick, 

 wood, bark or bone inserted between them, or by being 

 filled with clay, or by being rubbed with a broad-edged 

 stone." The operation constitutes a kind of a ceremony 

 and is performed sometimes eight days after birth, but 

 more frequently between the ages of 14 and 18. The 

 men thus operated on are given privileges that are not 

 within reach of the non-kulpi men. In regard to the 

 effect of this mutilation on the chances of impregna- 

 tion opinions differ. Eyre, who first described this con- 



