Male infibulation / [Eric John Dingwall].

  • Dingwall, Eric John.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Male infibulation / [Eric John Dingwall]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    96/164 (page 82)
    It is quite possible that in a few cases, especially in those examples in which obscene scenes are represented, the pointed character of the male organ is an intentional feature. In modern obscene drawings the same thing is sometimes noticeable and Rowlandson is said to have affected tapering phalli to a remarkable extent (P. Fraxi, Index librorum absconditorum (London, 1879), p. 348), and a membrum in this condition is believed by some medico-legal authorities to be a sign of active pederasty,1 whilst it is interesting to note that Nerciat in his obscene romance “ Les Aphrodites ” speaks of the membrum of a pederast as “si peu, si peu de diam^tre.”2 * We have seen above that some evidence exists that the Greeks considered a short prepuce to be in the nature of a deformity, although it is not at all certain how far a sense of shame or modesty was centred in the glans. The next point to be considered is whether such feelings can be detected to-day amongst the modern coloured races, and what means, if any, are taken by them to safeguard the demands that such modesty makes upon them. In the former part of this work8 it was remarked how Yeslingius comments upon the length of the fore¬ skin amongst the Arabians4 * * * and Egyptians, and the same thing is true of many of the Central African tribes as Sir Harry Johnston has shown (British Central Africa, 1 A. Tardieu, Etude medicate sur les attentats aux moeurs (6e 6d., Paris, 1873), pp. 241, 263, 266, 268. 2 Andrea de Nerciat, Les Aphrodites, ou fragments thali-priapiques pour servir d Vhistoire du plaisir: reimpression (4 vols., 1793- 1864), viii, p. 15. Of. M. Hirsohfeld, Die Homosexuality (2e Aufl., Berlin, 1920, p. 126.) 8 See p. 49. 4 According to Eeclus the Arabs say that sometimes their children are born without prepuces, and in these cases they are called Sons of the Moon because they think this anomaly is brought about through the influence of that body. (See E. Eeclus, La circon- cision, etc., Eev. Intern, de Sci. Paris, 1879, iii, p. 203. Cf. J. de Th4venot, Travels into the Levant (3 pts., London, 1637), p. 42