s of
circumcision, that they cannot see any moral nor hygienic value in the
operation. Among many Christians the idea still prevails that
circumcision is the relic of some barbarous rite, practiced in some
epoch away in the remote ages of the world, grafted on to the Jewish
religion by some accident or other; but that beyond the clinging of the
Jews to this custom, as being a remnant of their old religion, they
neither see in the rite any other significance, moral results, nor
hygienic precaution; and the fact of a Jew being circumcised is too
often made a subject of merriment among the unthinking portion of the
Christian world. Neither are physicians all of one accord on the subject
as to whether circumcision is a benefit, or, being useless, a dangerous
and an unnecessary operation. The writer is most emphatically in favor
of circumcision, and has the fullest faith in the positive moral and
physical benefits that mankind gains from the operation.

It may well be asked: What does the Jew receive in return for all the
suffering that he inflicts through circumcision on himself and his
little children? What is there to repay him or his for all the risks and
annoyances, besides branding himself and his with an indestructible
mark, which has been more than once the sign by which they have suffered
persecution, spoliation, expatriation, and death? Are there any
benefits enjoyed by the Jew that the uncircumcised does not enjoy in
equal proportion?

The relative longevity between the Hebrew race and the Christian nations
that dwell together under like climatic and political conditions
indicates a stronger tenacity on the part of the Jewish part of the
nations to life, a greatly less liability to disease, and a stronger
resistance to epidemic, endemic, and accidental diseases. By some
authorities it has been held that the occupations followed by the Jew
are such as do not compel him to risk his life, as he neither follows
any labor requiring any great and continued exertion, nor any that
subjects him to any great exposure; that, as a rule, when in business,
by some intuition he follows some branch that has neither anxiety, care,
nor great chance of loss connected with it; that he does not follow any
occupation that is attended with any risk of accident for either life or
limb. Besides all these, it is also urged that in cities the careful
inspection of their meat, and the peculiar social fabric of the family,
the love and vene