From Guy Cox
Aviva Rutkin writes that libraries in the US are becoming workshops (19 July, p 22). She credits the famous library of Alexandria as the home of the world’s first steam engine, although I think that was built in the adjoining university.
The library was notable in another way, though, in that entrants as well as being male, were required to be circumcised. Pythagoras, famous as he was, had to have the operation in order to be admitted.
Given that circumcision was anathema to Greek culture at the time, it says a lot for the library. I don’t think such a requirement would be popular today.
Sydney, Australia
