Athothis : a satire on modern medicine / by Thomas C. Minor.
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rived from the plant that Strabo mentions as forming a Ledge around the Temple of Osiris at Acanthus; and Theophrastus would never identify this article as his favorite gum arabic. Observe the jar marked 'Myrrh;' this is not the fine drug known by the Egyptians and Jews, and mentioned in the Old Testament. The ancient variety was an emblem of purity; this medicine is now unrefined and adulterated with bedellium and cherry gum. Look at this pot of opium ! It is totally unlike our ancient Egyptian extract, which was not mixed with resin, sugar, and starch. Avicenna and Rhazes would never have advocated the use of this variety. Behold! this Salep, which is formed of colchicum tubers and corn starch. This sample would not have a different effect on man than on woman, like the article prescribed by Dioscorides. This vial, labeled 'Bitter Almonds,' con- tains only peach kernels, while the bottle of ' Oil of Bit- ter Almonds' is merely lard oil and mirbane. Such almonds were not the kind sent to Egypt by Jacob, in order to ransom his son. Notice the aniseed, that once famous diuretic, now constituted of conium maculatum and sand. This modern asafetida is one half resin; this colocynth the fruit of a different curcurbitallous plant; these squills are not the sort described by Pytha- goris in a special monograph; these aloes are not the Red Sea kind, known by Galen. Haly Abbas would have scorned such specimens of senna leaves, and would have called them cassia brevipes. This pomegranate rind would never have suited Rhazes for an anthelmintic. Here is ginger, such as iEgineta never described. What would Celsus have said to this scammony, if he desired to destroy a tape-worm ? scammony made of tragacanth,