4o^i O F P U B E tl T Y. 



An operation fimllar to circ^imclfion Is necef- 

 fary in ceitain clifeafes. It is a common opi- 

 nion, that the prepuces of the Turks, and of o- 

 ther nations where circumcifion is pradlifed, 

 would naiurally grow too long, if they were 

 not curtailed in childhood. Boulaye fays, that 

 he has ieen, in the deferts of Arabia and Mefo- 

 potamia, on the banks of the Tigris and Eu- 

 'phrates, numbers of Arabian boys v/hofc prepu- 

 ces were fo long as to render them incapable of 

 generation, without the aid of circumcifion. 



The people of the eafl have likewife longer 

 eye-lids than the inhabitants of other nations. 

 The ikin of the eye-lids refembles that of the 

 prepuce. But what relation can take place be- 

 tween the growth of thofe diftant parts? 



Girls as well as boys are circumcifed, upon 

 the borders of the Perfic Gulph and the Red Sea. 

 But thefe people never perform the operation 

 till the girls have paded the age of puberty ; be- 

 caufe there is no redundance before that period. 

 In other climates, the excefs of grovN^th in the 

 nymphae appears more early ; and is fo gene- 

 ral among certain people, as thofe upon the ri- 

 ver Benin, that they circumcife both girls and 

 boys eight or ten days after birth. The circum- 

 cifion of females was an ancient cuftom, even in 

 Africa. Herodotus mentions it among the u- 

 fages of the -/Ethiopians. 



Circumcifion may, therefore be founded on 

 neceffity; it has, at leaft, propriety for its ob-r 



je6t. 



