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CHAPTER NINE

exceedingly primitive still-living savage races have native customs of a given type, it is at least highly probable that our prehistoric ancestors when at a similar savage grade of culture had similar or comparable customs. This makes the details of various operations used by savage races of greater than purely local interest. A brief account of some of these will be found in Bartels, Chapter CXXV.[1]

A number of authors also speak of an inland race of primitive Australians who employed the "Mika" operation, which consists of the slitting, with a stone knife, of the urethra by the lower side of the penis. This operation is paralleled by a much more elaborate sterilization of girls by the tearing off of the cervix and the slitting of the vagina down to the anus. A full account of this horrible operation is given by Dr. Garson.[2] The interest of the procedure of the natives lies in the fact that the Mika operations were done not only deliberately to prevent conception, but were done on eugenic grounds, for the operations on the

  1. ↑ Max Bartels (1893): "Die Medicin der Naturvölker." Pp. 361. Leipzig, 1893.
  2. ↑ J. G. Garson, M.D. (1894): "Notes on the Deformations of the Genital Organs, practised by the Natives of Australia." Med. Press and Circular, pp. 189-190. London, 1894.

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