Athothis : a satire on modern medicine / by Thomas C. Minor.
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pretty theory, you would be forced to admit that these germ organisms, like all other animated creatures, are likewise subject to sickness, and that their diseases are germ diseases, dependent on germs that in themselves are diseased, and so on to infinity. Thus, we might say, behold a bacillus suffering from the micrococci of ery- sipelas, or, lo ! an innocent bacteria dying from tubercu- lar bacilli. Where is the human eye that can penetrate the mysteries of Patah ? Bah ! your modern scientists, in their infantile efforts to grasp the hidden secrets of nature, remind me of the babe that, lying in its moth- er's arms, stretches its puny hands heavenward, in a vain attempt to grasp the crescent moon." " Rank heresy!" exclaimed Paulus Androcydes, in a tone of passion. " Your comparisons are not only ab- surd, but unfair. Look at the magnificent achievements of modern science. Take, for example, that extremely fashionable disease for which mercury is the true specific. Therein, Donne found the charming vibrio lineola in the sores ; Hallier discovered micrococci in the blood; Klatch noticed spores ; Lorstorfer stumbled on round granules ; Cutter observed mycelial " Hold !" retorted Athothis, " what particular organ- ism caused this entrancing malady ?" " Behold our glorious Pasteur and Koch," continued Paulus Androcydes, without apparently noticing the in- terruption. " Who discovered the cause of disease in the silk-worm, the grape wine, and sheep ? What is modern science without the tubercle germ and the comma baccillus ? How could we live without them?" "You mean, how could we die without them?" replied Athothis, laughingly. " I must say that I admire the business methods of French and German savants, since