Athothis : a satire on modern medicine / by Thomas C. Minor.
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The image contains the following text:
CHAPTER II.
DOCTOR PAULUS ANDROCYDES PERFORMS ONE OF THE MIRA-
CLES OF THE EGYPTIAN MAGI, AND RAISES THE SPIRIT
OF ATHOTHIS.
PPROACHING the sarcophagus, Doctor Paulus
Androcydes leaned over it meditatively for a
few seconds, then tenderly lifted out the
swaddled mummy, and, carrying it in his arms,
deposited the burden on the oriental rug in front of
the fire-place. Gently brushing off the brown dust
of ages that had accumulated on the external wrappings,
he took a sharp scalpel from an instrument case, and,
inserting it under one of the linen folds, made an incis-
ion outward; seizing the edge of the covering with the
finger-nails of his right hand, he proceeded to unwrap
the shroud, turning over the mummy again and again as
he unrolled layer after layer of the bitumen-saturated
fabric. Several times, small bunches of Balanites iEgyp-
tica dropped to the floor, and, on the first instant's ex-
posure to air, crumbled into ashes. In the meantime,
Anubis walked up and down the table, watching his mas-
ter and mewing uneasily. Finally, the doctor pulled off
the last covering, and the hideous, black, shrunken body
of the mummy lay exposed in all its nakedness, while
over its right side extended the rude gashing opening
through which the ancient embalmers had withdrawn the
viscera. This aperture was partially closed by an em-
blem representing the sacred eye of Horus, god of the