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

electricity, full of latent heat, radiating up and down the spinal column from that great generator of subtile fluid, the brain ; while billions of minute, separate and distinct microscopic nervous filaments glowed as distinctly as though under an illuminated lens of the highest imagin- able power. He looked at the kidneys, collecting effete and extraneous matter from the circulation, and carrying the minute aqueous particles into the tubules, thence to the ureters, from whence they dropped as amber globules into the bladder. The dark-colored liver seemed to be motionless ; and the processes of digestion usually going on in the intestines were quiescent. The stomach was largely distended with a fermenting mass of solids and gases. As he viewed this wonderful piece of anatomical mechanism in vital action, Doctor Paulus Androcydes experienced a thrill of professional delight, and exclaimed: " Oh ! if mortal man possessed this keen spiritual vision, how much more successful would medical practice be!" " Why this astonishment?" demanded Athothis, in a feigned tone of surprise. " Can it be possible that you, a modern physician, with all your acquirements in anat- omy and physiology, are unfamiliar with the workings of the human machine you profess to repair ? Can it be that men learned in physic are unacquainted with the first principles of vital movement ? " Paulus Androcydes hesitated a few seconds, then an- swered : " While it is true that we are not perfectly familiar with the internal workings of the human mechan- ism, we have nevertheless spent many years of late in a careful study of the anatomical and microscopical con- struction of the vital organs. We have likewise per- formed certain experiments in physiology, and made