Athothis : a satire on modern medicine / by Thomas C. Minor.

many goose, the vulture, the crane, the woodpecker and parrot, male and female, birds that strike with their beaks, webfooted birds, the lapwing, those that wound with strong talons, those that dive for fish, the heron, the raven, all amphibious fish eaters, tame hogs and fish, and—' " " Cease !" cried Paulus Androcydes. " Do you desire to rob mankind of all the flesh foods ? Do you expect moderns to take up all these ancient prejudices ? Is the world to become as abstemious as Iccus, that fool doctor, who ate little or nothing, in order to live, and died like the rest of humanity ? Methinks that Egyptian super- stitions, like spirits, have transmigrated from age to age in various disguises, and it is high time for modern science to call a halt." "Let modern people violate our ancient rules and sanitary regulations and suffer the consequences," responded Athothis, defiantly. " They dare not! lest a multitude of new plagues are sent to pester them." " Yet wise men have scoffed at such regulations," replied Paulus Androcydes. " Hippocrates believed in using pigeons, partridges, ducks, and geese, and his views were coincided in by Galen, iEtius, and Rhazes, although these writers admitted that water fowls are not as cleanly as land birds. The praises of woodcock have been sung by such delightful poets as Horace and Mar- tial, while the thrush is spoken of by Perseus, who says: " ' To use my fortune, Bassus, I intend : Nor therefore deem me too profuse, my friend, So prodigally vain, as to afford The costly turbot for my freedmen's board; Or so expert in flavors as to show How by the relish thrush from thrush, I know.'