A Surgical Temptation: The Demonization of the Foreskin and the Rise of Circumcision in Britain

387 Pages·2005·6.524 MB·English

by  Robert Darby

,
,
I
s u 'Temptation
A RGI CAL
The De1nonization of' the Fore~k in
& the Rise of Circumcision .in Britain
0 D BY
A Surgical Temptation

A Surgical Temptation
'1he Demonization of the Foreskin and
the Rise ofC ircumcision in Britain
ROBERT DARBY
The University of Chicago Press c H I c A G o & L o N D o N
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2005 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2005.
Printed in the United States of America
22 2I 20 I9 I8 I7 I6 I5 I4 I3 23456
ISBN-I3: 978-o-226-I3645-5 (cloth)
ISBN-I3 978-0-226-IOIIO-I (paperback)
ISBN-IO: 978-o-226-rn978-7 (ebook)
DOI: I0.7208/chicago/ 9780226rn9787.00I.OOOI
An earlier version of chapter I2 was published as "Where Doctors Differ: The Debate on
Circumcision as a Protection against Syphilis," Social History ofM edicine I6 (2003): 57-78.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Darby, Robert (Robert]. L.)
A surgical temptation: the demonization of the foreskin and the rise of circumcision in
Britain / Robert Darby.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: o-226-I3645-o (alk. paper)
Circumcision-History. 2. Circumcision-Social aspects. I. Title.
GN484.n37 2005
392.I'o9-dc22
@This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-I992 (Permanence of Paper).
In all cases [of masturbation] circumcision is undoubtedly the physician's clos
est friend and ally, offering as it does a certain means of alleviation and pro
nounced benefit. ... </'hose cases in which the glans presents a moist, semi-oily
appearance ... long thickened foreskin, pliant and giving, large and often tor
tuous dorsal veins, go to make up a picture that is exceedingly tempting to the
surgeon's scissors.
DR. EDGAR SPRATLING, "Masturbation in the Adult," 1895
</'hey didn't have to think, only to endure. Ify ou look at history you will see that
men have always preferred suffering to thinking.
M, BARNARD ELDERSHAW,"I'omorrowand"J'omorrowand"J'omorrow, 1947

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Part I. </'he European Background
1 Introduction: The Willful Organ Meets Fantasy Surgery 3
2 The Best of Your Property: What a Boy Once Knew about Sex 22
3 Pathologizing Male Sexuality:The Masturbation Phobia and
the Invention of Spermatorrhea 44
Part II. Medico-Moral Politics in Victorian Britain
4 The Shadow of Parson Malthus: Sexual Morals from the
Georgians to the Edwardians 73
5 The Priests of the Body: Doctors and Disease in an
Antisensual Age 94
6 A Source of Serious Mischief: William Acton and the Case
against the Foreskin 118
7 A Compromising and Unpublishable Mutilation:
Clitoridectomy and Circumcision in the 1860s
Part Ill. </'he Demonization of the Foreskin
8 One of the Most Grievous Diseases of Humanity:
Spermatorrhea in British Medical Practice
9 The Besetting Trial of Our Boys: Finding a Cure for
Masturbation
10 This Unyielding Tube of Flesh: The Rise and Fall of
Congenital Phimosis 215
11 Prevention Is Better Than Cure: Sanitizing the Modern Body 236
12 The Purity Movement and the Social Evil: Circumcision as a
Preventive of Syphilis 260
13 The Stigmata of a Gentleman: Circumcision and British
Society 285
14 Conclusion: The End of the Culture of Abstinence 311
Notes 321
References 341
Index 365
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Over the years it has taken me to complete this book, my greatest debt
has been to the National Library of Australia, and particularly the staff
of the Petherick reading room, who provide congenial conditions for re
search and have always made every effort to find the scarce items I have
sought. The NLA's facilities for interlibrary loans and obtaining copies of
journal articles are indispensable resources for independent scholars. I
am also grateful to the staff of the Chifley and Hancock libraries at the
Australian National University, and especially to Paul Quilty, for facili
tating access to nineteenth-century medical periodicals at a time when
they were stored in the basement. No medical historian in Australia
would get far without the History of Medicine Library at the Royal Aus
tralasian College of Physicians in Sydney, and I am grateful to the for
mer librarian there, Brenda Heagney, for her friendly assistance, enthu
siasm, and kindness on many occasions; I know of nowhere else where
a sudden whim to see the extant works of Aretaeus the Cappadocian
could be gratified within five minutes. Librarians at Sydney and Mel
bourne universities have also been very helpful.At the Wellcome Library
and as the founder and maintainer of the Hist-Sex (now H-Histsex) List
for historians of sexuality, Dr. Lesley Hall replied to my many questions
with detailed answers and kindly sent me an advance copy of her Dic
tionary of National Biography entry on William Acton, as well as provid
ing much other material from her own research and commenting help
fully on several draft chapters. Dr. Ivan Crozier provided useful leads
and advice in relation to Acton, Havelock Ellis, and male sexuality in the
nineteenth century generally. Through the Hist-Sex List I was able to find
a translator for the passage in Latin quoted in chapter 7, and I thank
Chris Cudabec from the Classics Department, University of North Car-
ix