observed by him in the Soudan. Among
the Nubians this operation was performed at about the age of eight with
great ceremony, and when the time for marriage approached the vulva had
to be opened by incision. Sir Richard Buxton, a distinguished traveler,
also speaks of infibulation, and, according to him, at the time of the
marriage ceremony the male tries to prove his manhood by using only
Nature's method and weapon to consummate the marriage, but if he failed
he was allowed artificial aid to effect entrance. Sir Samuel Baker is
accredited in The Lancet with giving an account in Latin text of the
modus operandi of a practice among the Nubian women of removing the
clitoris and nymphae in the young girl, and abrading the adjacent walls
of the external labia so that they would adhere and leave only a
urethral aperture.

This ancient custom of infibulation is occasionally seen at the present
day in civilized countries, and some cases of infibulation from
jealousy are on record. There is mentioned, as from the Leicester
Assizes, the trial of George Baggerly for execution of a villainous
design on his wife. In jealousy he "had sewed up her private parts."
Recently, before the New York Academy of Medicine, Collier reported a
case of pregnancy in a woman presenting nympha-infibulation. The
patient sought the physician's advice in the summer of 1894, while
suffering from uterine disease, and being five weeks pregnant. She was
a German woman of twenty-eight, had been married several years, and was
the mother of several children. Collier examined her and observed two
holes in the nymphae. When he asked her concerning these, she
reluctantly told him that she had been compelled by her husband to wear
a lock in this region. Her mother, prior to their marriage, sent her
over to the care of her future husband (he having left Germany some
months before). On her arrival he perforated the labia minora, causing
her to be ill several weeks; after she had sufficiently recovered he
put on a padlock, and for many years he had practiced the habit of
locking her up after each intercourse. Strange to relate, no physician,
except Collier, had ever inquired about the openings. In this
connection the celebrated Harvey mentions a mare with infibulated
genitals, but these did not prevent successful labor.

Occasionally infibulation has been used as a means of preventing
masturbation. De la Fontaine has mentioned this fact, and there is a
case in thi