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

osity, deeming its people ignorant and superstitious. Regarding embalming, I have agreed with many modern writers that it was only practiced for hygienic purposes; to prevent a contaminated water supply, for instance, as even your benighted countrymen knew that decaying organic matter was dangerous to human life. I suppose you are aware that the most intelligent of latter day Egyptologists insist that the Nile region was destitute of timber, and that the nome dwellers therefore embalmed instead of cremating their dead. As for myself, I am a cremationist." Athothis laughed merrily as though amused by these observations; then quickly remarked, while his eyes twinkled with a sly gleam of spiritual humor, " I judge you to be an expert at incineration from the promptness and dispatch with which my cat-like covering was con- sumed in your grate. You speak admiringly of your Egyptologists. Know, my mortal friend, that these modern writers draw largely on their imagination when discoursing of my people. The truth is, that we per- formed the act of embalming simply to preserve our dead until the resurrection. As for the statement of your latest authorities that it was done on account of a lack of timber in Egypt, that is a ridiculous fallacy. Indeed, we had many other methods for securing intense heat had we been inclined to cremate. One of the most intelligent of your modern writers, Herodotus, came near speaking the truth when he stated that ' the Egyp- tians mummified their dead in order to prevent them from changing into asses and dogs ;' in other words, to keep them from undergoing eternal transmigration. Another distinguished author, Saint Augustine, says that we preserved our dead, by embalming, because we < believed