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using template LanderJ etal 1997
Many Americans are surprised to hear that [[circumcision]] (the surgical removal of the [[foreskin]]) is uncommon in the western world. Foreigners are often shocked when they first hear that the practice of circumcision even exists in the United States. Circumcision was first introduced in the [[United States ]] by an anti-sexual Victorian initiative which began during the 1830’s. Numerous publications from the 1830’s to times even as late as the 1970’s had advocated for circumcision as a means to prevent [[masturbation]], and to permanently desensitize, denude, and immobilize the penis.<ref name="Lallemand">{{REFbook |last=Lallemand |first=Claude-Francois |year=(1):1836; (2):1839; (3):1842 |title=Des Pertes Seminales Involontaires |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HV4B3UaMUAYC&dq=Des+Pertes+Seminales+Involontaires+1836&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s |volume=1-3 |pages=(1):463-467; (2):70-162; (3):266-267, 280-289 |accessdate=2011-06-09Lallemand1836}}</ref><ref name="Dixon">{{REFbook |last=Dixon |first=Edward H. |year=1845 |title=A Treatise on Diseases of the Sexual Organs |pages=158-165 |location=New York |publisher=Stringer & Co |accessdate=2011-06-09Dixon1845}}</ref><ref name="Moses1871">{{REFjournal |last=Moses |init=MJ |title=The value of circumcision as a hygienic and therapeutic measure |journal=New York Medical Journal |date=1871-11 |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=368-374Moses1871}}</ref><ref name="Kellogg1888">{{REFbook |last=Kellogg |first=John Harvey |year=1888 |title=Plain Facts for Old and Young. |url=http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/KelPlai.html |editor=Project Gutenberg |edition=1881 edition |chapter=Treatment for Self-Abuse and Its Effects |location=Burlington, Iowa |publisher=F. Segner & Co |accessdate=2011-03-21Kellogg1888}}</ref><ref name="Hutchinson1891">{{REFjournal
|last=Hutchinson
|first=Jonathan
|issue=9
|pages=26,76-78
}}</ref><ref name="MillerSnyder1953">{{REFjournal |last=Miller |init=RL |last2=Snyder |init2=DC |title=Immediate circumcision of the newborn male |journal=American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology |date=1953-01 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=1-11MillerSnyder1953}}</ref><ref name="Fishbein1969">{{REFbook |last=Fishbein |first=Morris |author-link=Morris Fishbein |year=1969 |title=Modern Home Medical Adviser |url= |work= |editor=Garden City |edition= |volume= |chapter=Sex hygiene |pages=90+119 |location=New York |publisher=Doubleday & CoFishbein1969}}</ref><ref>{{REFbook
|last=Campbell
|first=M.F.
|init=MF
|year=1970
|title=Urology
|editoreditors=M.F. Campbell and & J.H. Harrison
|edition=3
|volume= 2
|chapter=The Male Genital Tract and the Female Urethra
|page=1836
[[Image:FGC.jpeg|right|thumb|From Historical American Female Circumcision medical papers]]
Circumcision advocates quickly moved on to manufacture a number of outrageous health claims. These claims were tailored to the fears and anxieties of the day. Circumcision has been claimed to cure epilepsy, convulsions, paralysis, elephantiasis, tuberculosis, eczema, bed-wetting, hip-joint disease, fecal incontinence, rectal prolapse, wet dreams, hernia, headaches, nervousness, hysteria, poor eyesight, idiocy, mental retardation, insanity, strabismus, hydrocephalus, clubfoot, cancer, STD’s, UTI’s, etc.<ref>F{{REFbook |last=Hodges |first=Frederick A. A |init=FA |author-link=Frederick M. Hodges, " |chapter=Short History of the Institutionalization of Involuntary Sexual Mutilation in the United States," in |editors=[[George C. Denniston|G. C. Denniston and ]] & [[Marilyn Fayre Milos|M. F. Milos, eds., ]] |title=Sexual Mutilations: A Human Tragedy ( |location=New York: |publisher=Plenum Press, |year=1997) |page=35}}</ref> [[Masturbation]] was a major focus of Victorian doctors.<ref name="self2016">{{REFjournal |url=https://journals.troy.edu/index.php/test/article/view/386/302 |title=The Rise of Circumcision in Victorian America |first=Eleanor |last=Self |author-link=Eleanor Self |journal=The Alexandrian |volume=5 |issue=1 |date=2016 |accessdate=2022-09-02 |format=PDF}}</ref> When gentiles in Germany criticized the Jewish practice of [[Brit Milah| ritual circumcision]] as "barbaric", 35Jewish doctors in Germany invented false claims that circumcision could prevent a variety of diseases.<ref>{{REFbook |last=Ephron |first=John M. |init=JM |year=2001 |title=Medicine and the German Jews |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203164223/http://www.cirp.org/library/history/ephron1/ |pages=222-3 |isbn=0-300-08377-7 |accessdate=2021-10-30 }}</ref>American Jewish doctors exhibited similar behavior.
Doctors were eager to claim that they could prevent and cure many of these aliments, conditions and diseases because there were no treatments available then. Even though all of these claims have been throughly discredited, circumcision has remained a solution in search of a problem ever since. Many Americans are surprised to find out that female genital cutting ([[FGC]]) shares a strikingly similar history in the United States.
|volume=7
|pages=31-33
}}</ref><ref name="Dawson1915">{{REFjournal |last=Dawson |first=Benjamin E. |init=BE |title=Circumcision in the Female: Its Necessity and How to Perform It |journal=American Journal of Clinical Medicine |date=1915-06 |volume=22 |issue=66 |pages=520-523Dawson1915}}</ref><ref name="Eskridge1918">{{REFjournal |last=Eskridge |first=Belle C. |init=BC |title=Why not circumcise the girl as well as the boy? |journal=Texas State Journal of Medicine |date=1918-05 |volume=14 |pages=17-19Eskridge1918}}</ref><ref name="McDonald1958">{{REFjournal |last=McDonald |init=CF |title=Circumcision of the female |journal=General Practitioner |date=1958-09 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=98-99McDonald1958}}</ref><ref name="Rathmann1959">{{Rathmann1959}}</ref>
[[FGC]] was even covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield until 1977. Nowadays, many forms of [[FGC]] are now considered forms of female genital mutilation ([[FGM]]), which are banned in all western countries.
=== 19th century ===
* 1832 1836 [[Claude-Francois François Lallemand]] circumcises a patient to '''cure''' him '''from nocturnal seminal emissions''' (i.e. wet dreams).<ref name="Lallemand"/>
* 1845 [[Edward H. Dixon]] declares that circumcision '''prevents [[masturbation]]'''.<ref name="Dixon"/>
}}</ref>
* 1865 [[Nathaniel Heckford]] claims that circumcision '''cures epilepsy'''.<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Heckford |first=Nathaniel |init=N |title=Circumcision as a remedial measure in certain cases of epilepsy and chorea |journal=Clinical Lectures and Reports by the Medical and Surgical Staff of the London Hospital |date=1865 |volume=2 |pages=58-64Heckford1865}}</ref>
* 1870 [[Lewis A. Sayre]] publishes a paper 'proving' that circumcision '''cures epilepsy'''.<ref>{{REFjournal
}}</ref>
* 1871 [[M.J. Moses]] declares that Jews are '''immune to [[masturbation]] because of circumcision'''.<ref name="Moses1871"/>
* 1873 [[Joseph Bell]] announces his discovery that circumcision '''cures bed wetting'''.<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Bell |first=Joseph |init=J |title=Nocturnal incontinence of urine cured by circumcision |journal=Edinburgh Medical Journal |date=1873-05 |volume=1 |issue=9 |page=1034Bell1873}}</ref>
* 1875 [[Lewis A. Sayre]] declares that '''foreskin causes curvature of the spine, paralysis of the bladder, and clubfoot'''.<ref>{{REFjournal
}}</ref>
* 1879 [[H.H. Kane]] 'discovers' that circumcision '''cures nocturnal emissions and abdominal neuralgia'''.<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Kane |init=HH |title=Seminal emissions, abdominal neuralgia: circumcision: cure |journal=Southern Clinic |date=1879-10 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=8-11Kane1879}}</ref>
* 1881 [[Maximillian LandesburgLandesberg]] announces that circumcision '''cures eye problems''' that he believed were '''caused by [[masturbation]]'''.<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Landesburg |first=Maximillian |init=M |title=On affections of the eye caused by masturbation |journal=Medical Bulletin |date=1881-04 |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=79-81Landesberg1881}}</ref>
* 1886 [[William G. Eggleston]] declares that '''foreskin causes crossed eyes'''.<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Eggleston |first=William G. |init=WG |title=Two cases of reflex paraplegia(one with aphasia) from tape-worm and phimosis |journal=Journal of the American Medical Association |date=1886-05-08 |volume=6 |issue=19 |pages=511-515Eggleston1886}}</ref>
* 1888 [[John Harvey Kellogg]] promotes '''circumcision as punishment''' for boys to discourage them from masturbating.<ref>{{REFbook |last=Kellogg |first=John Harvey |year=1888 |title=Plain Facts for Old and Young |url=https://archive.org/details/plainfaorold00kell/page/390 |pages=107 |location=Burlington, Iowa |publisher=F. Segner & Co |accessdate=2019-09-24Kellogg1888}}</ref>
* 1890 [[William D. Gentry]] declares that circumcision '''cures blindness, deafness and dumbness.'''<ref>{{REFjournal
}}</ref>
* 1894 [[P.C. Peter Charles Remondino]] says '''circumcising blacks will help prevent them from raping whites'''.<ref name="Remondino1894"/>
* 1894 [[H.L. Rosenberry]] publishes paper 'proving' that circumcision '''cures urinary and rectal incontinence'''.<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Rosenberry |init=HL |title=Incontinence of the urine and faeces, cured by circumcision |journal=Medical Record |date=1894-08-11 |volume=4 |issue=6 |page=173Rosenberry1894}}</ref>
* 1898 [[T. Scott McFarland]] says he has "circumcised as many girls as boys, and always with happy results."<ref name="McFarland1898"/>
}}</ref>
* 1901 [[Ernest G. Mark]] notes that the "pleasurable sensations that are elicited from the extremely sensitive" inner lining of the foreskin may encourage a child to masturbate, which is why he recommends circumcision since it "lessens the sensitiveness of the organ".<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Mark |first=Ernest G. |init=EG |title=Circumcision |journal=American Practitioner and News |date=1901-02-15 |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=122-126Mark1901}}</ref>
* 1902 [[Roswell Park]] publishes paper 'proving' that '''foreskin causes epilepsy''' and that circumcision cures it.<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Park |first=Roswell |init=R |title=The surgical treatment of epilepsy |journal=American Medicine |date=1902-11-22 |volume=4 |issue=21 |pages=807-809Park1902}}</ref>
* 1914 [[Abraham L. Wolbarst]] claims that circumcision '''prevents tuberculosis''' and demands the compulsory circumcision of all children in America.<ref>{{REFjournal
* 1915 [[Benjamin E. Dawson]] says that since the '''clitoral hood is the source of many neuroses''', female circumcision is necessary.<ref name="Dawson1915"/>
* 1918 [[Belle C. Eskridge]] concludes circumcision will '''relieve one of the greatest causes of [[masturbation]]''' in girls.<ref name="Eskridge1918"/>
* 1926 [[Abraham L. Wolbarst]] claims that circumcision '''prevents penile cancer'''.<ref name="wolbarst1926">{{REFjournal
}}</ref>
* 1930 [[Norton Henry Bare]] claims that he has cured a boy of '''epilepsy''' and '''bed-wetting''' by circumcising him.<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Bare |first=Norton Henry |init=NH |title=Surgical treatment of epilepsy with report of case |journal=The China Medical Journal |date=1930-11 |volume=4 |issue=11 |pages=1109-1113Bare1930}}</ref>
[[File:Single_mogen.jpg|right|thumb|The [[Gomco|Gomco]] and [[Mogen|Mogen]] clamps.]]
* 1934 [[Aaron Goldstein]] and [[Hiram S. Yellen]] invent and mass market the [[Gomco]] clamp which makes it easier for doctors to cut off even more [[skin ]] than in traditional circumcisions.<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Goldstein |first=Aaron |init=A |last2=Yellen |first2=Hiram S. |init2=HS |title=Bloodless circumcision of the newborn |journal=American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology |date=1935-07 |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=146-147GoldsteinYellen1935}}</ref>
* 1935 [[R. W. Cockshut]] demands that all boys be circumcised in order to '''desensitize the penis and promote chastity'''.<ref name="Cockshut1935"/>
* 1951 [[Abraham Ravich]] invents claims that circumcision prevents '''cervical cancer in women'''.<ref>{{Ravich1951}}</ref>
* 1953 [[R.Richard L. Miller]] and [[D.Donald C. Snyder]] unleash their plans to circumcise all male babies immediately after birth while still in the delivery room to '''prevent [[masturbation]]''' and '''provide "immunity to nearly all physical and mental illness."'''<ref name="MillerSnyder1953"/>
* 1954 [[Ernest L. Wynder]] claims that male circumcision '''prevents cervical cancer in women.'''<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Wynder |first=Ernest L. |init=EL |author-link=Ernest L. Wynder |title=A study of environmental factors of carcinoma of the cervix |journal=American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology |date=1954-10 |volume=68 |issue=4 |pages=10166-52 (??)Wynder1954}}</ref>
* 1956 [[Raymond Creelman]] invents the [[Circumstraint]] which straps down and immobilizes the baby's arms and legs.<ref>{{REFdocument
}}</ref>
* 1958 [[C.Christine F. McDonald]] says "the same reasons that apply for the circumcision of males are generally valid when considered for the female."<ref name="McDonald1958"/>
* 1959 [[W.G. Rathmann]] finds that among the many benefits of female circumcision is that it will '''make the [[clitoris ]] easier for the husband to find'''.<ref name="Rathmann1959"/>
* 1966 Masters and Johnson erroneous claim that there is '''no difference in sensitivity between penises with and without [[foreskin]]'''.<br>(Note: Their work helps propagate the medical dogma that [[circumcision]] has no effect on sexuality go practically unquestioned for nearly the next four decades.)<ref>{{REFbook
|last=Masters and & Johnson
|year=1966
|title=Human Sexual Response
|location=Boston, MA
|publisher=Little Brown & Co.
}}</ref>
* 1971 [[Abraham Ravich]] claims that circumcision prevents cancer of the bladder and the rectum.<ref>{{Ravich1971}}</ref>
* 1971 The [[American Academy of Pediatrics]] Committee on [[Fetus ]] and Newborn issues a warning to the Nation that, "There are no valid medical indications for circumcision in the neonatal period."<ref>{{REFbook
|last=Evanston
|first=Ill
|init=I
|year=1971
|title=Hospital Care of Newborn Infants
|last=Spock
|first=Benjamin
|init=B
|title=Baby and Child Care
|pages=1946-1976
}}</ref>
* 1986 [[Aaron J. Fink]] claims that circumcision '''prevents [[AIDS]]'''.<ref>{{REFjournal
|last=Fink
|first=Aaron J.
}}</ref>
* 1996 [[J.John R. Taylor]] finds that the average amount of amputated foreskin was nearly half of the total [[penile skin]].<ref>{{TaylorJR LockwoodAP TaylorAJ 1996}}</ref>
* 1997 [[Edgar J. Schoen]] tries and fails once again to convince European countries to institute mass circumcision.<ref>{{REFjournal
}}</ref>
* 1997 [[Janice Lander]] discovers that '''circumcision without anesthesia is traumatic for babies'''.<br>(Note: Before this, almost all infant circumcisions were done without anesthetic due to the prevalent belief among circumcisers that babies are not capable of feeling significant pain and if they could it doesn't matter since they won't be able to remember it.)<ref>{{REFjournal |last=Lander |first=Janice |init=J |author-link=Janice Lander |title=Comparison of ring block, dorsal penile nerve block, and topical anesthesia for neonatal circumcision |journal=Journal of the American Medical Association |date=LanderJ etal 1997-12 |volume=274 |issue=24 |pages=2157-2162 |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/pain/lander/}}</ref>
* 1998 [[Howard J. Stang]], inventor of an upright circumcision restraint fails to mention this conflict of interest in his article promoting infant circumcision.<ref>{{REFjournal
* 1999 The [[American Academy of Pediatrics]] Task Force on Circumcision, after reviewing 40 years worth of medical studies, concluded that the "potential medical benefits of newborn male circumcision... are not sufficient to recommend routine neonatal circumcision." This report is also the first time the AAP has acknowledged (after decades of doctors mindlessly repeating the belief that babies don't feel significant pain) that circumcision without anesthesia is traumatic and if circumcision is to be done, anesthesia should be used. Here are some highlights from the report:
::'''Role of Hygiene:''' "there is little evidence to affirm the association between circumcision status and optimum penile hygiene."
::'''STDs including [[HIV]]:''' "behavioral factors appear to be far more important than circumcision status."
::'''Penile Cancer:''' "in a developed country such as the United States, penile cancer is a rare disease and the risk of penile cancer developing in an [[uncircumcised]] man, although increased compared with a circumcised man, is low."
::'''Urinary Tract Infections:''' "breastfeeding was shown to have a threefold protective effect on the incidence of UTI in a sample of [[uncircumcised]] infants. However, breastfeeding status has not been evaluated systematically in studies assessing UTI and circumcision status." meaning that the earlier UTIs studies results were confounded. Even if their numbers were accurate, in order to prevent one UTI during the first year of life by circumcising a baby boy, approximately 195 babies who will not get a UTI would need to be circumcised. Also infant girls commonly develop UTIs(in some studies at even higher rates than infant boys) and the standard treatment for them is antibiotics which works just as well for infant boys with UTIs. The AAP concludes this section noting that "the absolute risk of developing a UTI in an [[uncircumcised]] male infant is low (at most, ~1%)".
=== 21st century ===
* 2002 [[W.K. Nahm]] extends the storage life of specialized cell cultures derived from "freshly harvested neonatal foreskin tissue."<br>(Note: Since the 1980s, some amputated infant foreskins have been sold without the knowledge of the parents to biomedical companies for research and even use in commercial cosmetic products such as anti-wrinkle creams.)<ref>{{REFjournal
|last=Nahm
|init=WK
}}</ref>
* 2003 [[Edgar J. Schoen]] steps up pressure on [[American Academy of Pediatrics]] to reverse its policy on circumcision, falsely claiming that circumcision prevents [[AIDS]].<ref>{{REFjournal
|last=Schoen
|first=Edgar J.
}}</ref>
* 2005 [[R.Y. Stallings]] finds that [[HIV ]] rates are significantly lower in circumcised women.<br>(Note: There was no WHO call for mass female circumcision to help prevent [[AIDS]].)<ref>{{REFconference |place=Rio de Janeiro |title=Female circumcision and HIV infection in Tanzania: for better or for worse? |last=Stallings |first=R.Y. |source=Third International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment |date=2005-07-25 |note=25-27 July 2005 |accessdate=Stallings2005}}</ref>
* 2007 [[Robert C. Bailey]] ends his study early with the conclusion '''touting circumcision as a 'vaccine' that prevents [[HIV ]] infection'''.<br>(Note: This and other similar studies were widely reported throughout the American media.)<ref>{{REFjournal |last=RCT Bailey |first=Robert C. |init=RC |author-link=Robert C. Bailey |title=Male circumcision for HIV prevention for young men in Kisumu, Kenya |journal=Lancet |date=et al 2007 |volume=369 |issue=9562 |pages=643-656}}</ref>
* 2007 [[L. Lot de Witte]] finds that '''[[Langerhans cells]] found in the foreskin are a natural barrier to [[HIV ]] infection'''.<br>(Note: This and other similar studies were widely ignored throughout the American media.)<ref>{{REFjournal |last=de Witte |init=L |author-link=L. de Witte |title=Langerin is a natural barrier to HIV-1 transmission by Langerhans cells |journal=Nature Medicine |issue=13 |pages=367-371 |url=http://icgi.org/Downloads/IAS/de_Witte.pd |date=DeWitte etal 2007 |accessdate=2019-09-24}}</ref>
* 2007 [[Morris L. Sorrells]] ''et al.'' tests the relative sensitivity of the [[penis ]] and finds that the '''[[foreskin ]] is the most sensitive part of the [[penis ]] and the [[glans ]] is the least'''.<ref>{{Sorrells etal 2007}}</ref>
{{SEEALSO}}
* [[Abraham L. Wolbarst|Abraham Leo Wolbarst]]
* [[United Kingdom]]
* [[United States of America]]
{{LINKS}}
|accessdate=2020-06-06
}}
* {{REFjournal |last=Gollaher |first=David L. |init=DL |author-link= |title=From ritual to science: the medical transformation of circumcision in America |journal=Journal of Social History |date=GollaherDL 1994-09 |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=5-36 |url=http://www.cirp.org/library/history/gollaher/ |accessdate=2020-05-21}}
* {{REFjournal
|last=Dunsmuir
|author2-link=
|etal=no
|title-=The history of circumcision |trans-title= |language=
|journal=BJU Int
|date=1999-01-01
|volume=83 Suppl 1 |issue= |article= |page=Suppl 1
|pages=1-12
|url=http://www.cirp.org/library/history/dunsmuir1/?source=post_page--
|pubmedID=1034940
|pubmedCID=
|last=Ephron
|first=John M.
|init=JM
|author-link=
|year=2001
|chapter=
|pages=222-233
|location=New Haven, {{USSC|CT}} |publisher={{UNI|Yale University |Yale}} Press
|isbn=0-300-08377-7
|quote=
|first=Jonathan D.
|author-link=
|publisher={{UNI|DePaul University|DePaul}}
|location=Chicago
|format=PDF
|format=
|quote=
}}
* {{REFweb
|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120516074843/http://www.historyofcircumcision.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=8&id=73&Itemid=52
|title=History of Circumcision
|last=
|first=
|date=2011
|accessdate=2022-01-10
}}