Athothis : a satire on modern medicine / by Thomas C. Minor.
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with the Jews, and was first practiced by Abraham nine- teen hundred and forty-one years before the establish- ment of Christianity !" replied Paulus Androcydes. Athothis smiled and answered: " You hold to the usual erroneous ideas of moderns." " Yet I based my belief on the Bible, the Book of Prophets, and the Talmud," retorted Paulus Androcy- des, " and surely your chronology does not antedate the Book of Genesis!" " I was born centuries before Abraham," responded Athothis with dignity. " The operation of circumcision is as old as Egypt, for does not our most ancient papyrus speak of the blood that fell from the phallus of the Sun-god when he had finished cutting himself. Go back to the beginning of time, when Isis wandered disconsolate in search of her beloved Osiris. Moderns call it a myth, yet we believed it to be true in my day. Remember that Egypt was a torrid country and her Magi were well versed in all measures tending to promote the public health. With us circumcision was a pure sanitary meas- ure, and cleanliness the object aimed at, although the operation was practiced under guise of a religious cere- monial, so that it had both a theological and medical sig- nificance. Know, mortal, that I myself underwent the operation, and an examination of the oldest mummies found will reveal the fact that the phallic mark is com- mon. The engraved and printed stones of any ancient country teach that this operation dates back to the most remote ages, and some vandals have lately taken from Thebes a stone representing the circumcision of the two sons of Ramescs II. " In those clays, the operation was performed in the eighth year and not on the eighth day. Remember that