In 1870, Lewis Albert Sayre, an orthopedic surgeon, published “Partial Paralysis from Reflex Irritation, Caused by Congenital Phimosis and Adherent Prepuce,” hereafter “Partial Paralysis,” in the journal Transactions of the American Medical Association. In the article, Sayre describes using circumcision, or surgical removal of the prepuce, or foreskin, of the penis, to treat muscle paralysis in several young male patients. While circumcision has a long history as a religious and cultural practice, “Partial Paralysis” was one of the first articles to articulate a medical reason for performing circumcision. Sayre reports that each of his patients were experiencing muscle paralysis or hip joint pain and also had phimosis, a condition in which the foreskin tightly encases head of the penis, or adherent prepuce, a condition in which the foreskin fuses to the head of the penis. Suspecting a connection between the conditions, Sayre circumcised each patient and concluded that circumcision cured the boys’ medical problems. While doctors no longer use circumcision to treat muscle paralysis or hip pain, the medical justification for circumcision that Sayre articulates in “Partial Paralysis” helped to popularize its use among physicians at the end of the nineteenth century in the US.