The subject of this paper is as old as medicine itself; my attention, however, within the past few years has especially been called to various ailments of infancy and childhood, which may have been directly attributed to phimosis. In many of the cases this condition had been overlooked by physicians previously in attendance. In some of the cases attended by the writer from their birth, phimosis had been the last thing considered, but a relief of this malformation would always bring about an amelioration of the various symptoms, and in most cases an absolute cure.
In advising an operation for phimosis it is not my object to indorse circumcision as done according to the rites of certain oriental religions; but to perform an operation based strictly on anatomic and physiologic data.
The main purpose of the prepuce is to act as a protection to the sensitive glans penis; and to