From ritual to science: The medical transformation of circumcision in America.

Discusses the medical transformation of circumcision in the United States. Circumcision as a ritual; Role of Lewis Sayre in the prevalence of neonatal circumcision in American clinical medicine in the 1870s; Beliefs concerning circumcision; Circumcision as a preventive operation during the 1880s and 1890s; Social aspects of circumcision Reinforcement of the social meaning of circumcision.