| Aposthia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| An intact human penis with aposthia. | |
| Specialty | Urology |
Aposthia is a rare congenital condition in humans, in which the foreskin of the penis is missing.[1]: 37–39
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, E. S. Talbot claimed that aposthia among Jews was evidence for the now-discredited Lamarckian theory of evolution.[2] In his work The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Charles Darwin also mentioned cases of "born circumcised" babies as "conclusive evidence"[3] for the now-discredited blending inheritance.
It is likely that the cases he described were actually hypospadias, a condition in which the urinary meatus is on the underside of the penis.
- ^ Fahmy, Mohamed (2017). Congenital Anomalies of the Penis. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-43310-3.
- ^ E. S. Talbot, "Inheritance of circumcision effects", Medicine 1898, 4:473-475.
- ^ Darwin, Charles (1868), "Variation of Plants and Animals Under Domestication Archived 2013-11-02 at the Wayback Machine", Volume 1, Chapter XIV.