Note 80 — Chapter XVII · Some Reasons for Being Circumcised.

This patient subsequently died of a uræmic complication following on an attack of fever. The man was in his prime, and had been of most exemplary habits. The fever that he had was, I had every reason to believe, directly due to the results of imperfect blood depuration incident on the irritability of his kidneys, which, retroactively, again allowed the uræmic condition to assume that dangerous degree that suddenly and very unexpectedly to his friends and family ushered the patient into eternity. This man had only been merely inconvenienced by his prepuce up to the time that it caused his death. It is interesting to observe what little trifles bring about the end of some men. The unlucky habit of putting the royal countenance on paper brought Louis XVI to a sudden halt at Varennes, and his head to the scaffold. The lucky meeting of the aides of Bonaparte and Desaix between Novi and Marengo gave to France its empire and to Europe the enlightenment that was diffused by that event. If such trifles affect individuals and nations, we must not be astonished that the little useless prepuce should be endowed with the mischief-working power of the historical old cow and kerosene lamp that reduced Chicago to ashes.