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The History of Phimosis from Antiquity to the Present

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Book cover Male and Female Circumcision

Abstract

Since the mid-nineteenth century, a culturally-significant disease construct known as phimosis has been commonly recognised. Beginning at birth and usually ending by late adolescence, the historical biography of phimosis portrays it as an illness unique to juvenile males. Additionally, presumably responsible, scientific, unbiased, and rational physicians, writing in leading medical journals and text books, have claimed over the last 100 years that the results of their scientific studies prove that phimosis is the cause of such diseases as cancer of the male and female reproductive organs, venereal disease, epilepsy, hydrocephalus, insanity, idiocy, masturbation, heart disease, homosexuality, deafness, dumbness, urinary tract infections, criminality, and death. The drive to cure and prevent phimosis, thus, has been presented as a surgical solution to the most pressing social and moral problems.

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Authors
  1. Frederick Mansfield Hodges
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Washington, Seanle, Washington

    George C. Denniston

  2. Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, England

    Frederick Mansfield Hodges

  3. National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers, San Anselmo, California

    Marilyn Fayre Milos

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© 1999 Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, New York

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Hodges, F.M. (1999). The History of Phimosis from Antiquity to the Present. In: Denniston, G.C., Hodges, F.M., Milos, M.F. (eds) Male and Female Circumcision. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-39937-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-39937-9_5

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