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→Universal circumcision as a sanitary measure: Wikify.
This was before the days of evidence-based medicine, when doctors relied on medical ''opinion'', instead of scientific evidence. Wolbarst collected the ''opinions'' of several physicians and published those opinions as evidence for his argument that circumcision prevented diseases. Wolbarst argued that non-therapeutic neonatal circumcision prevented numerous diseases including venereal disease (now known as sexually transmitted disease).
Wolbarst's article appeared on the eve of World War I. It apparently influenced American military commanders to order [[adult circumcision | circumcision]] of military personnel under their command to prevent venereal diseases and improve military readiness.<ref name="hill2002">{{REFweb
|url=http://purewatergazette.net/circumcision.htm
|title=The Rise and Fall of Neonatal Circumcision: The Irrational Abuse Of Helpless Children
|format=
|quote=
}}</ref> No statistics exist to document how many men were ]]circumcised ]] because of Wolbarst's article.
The adoption of circumcision as a prophylactic [[amputation]] by American military services falsely stigmatized the [[foreskin]] as being unhealthy. [[Robert S. Van Howe|Van Howe]] (1999) has exhaustively shown that circumcision does not protect against STDs.<ref name="vanhowe1999">{{REFjournal