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

literature of by-gone epochs ; he had studied the works of Trismegistus, Zeno, Hippocrates, Epictetus, and Xen- ocrates. He had pondered over Pythagorean theories and laughed at the strange conceits as to spirits and devils held by Paracelsus; yet, he had never believed that the soul of Euphorbus had transmigrated to Lu- cian's chicken. His library was filled with the most antiquated editions of the philosophers and scientists of former centuries from which he had appropriated the choicest extracts of ancient wisdom ; but now, there con- fronted him that most obsolete of all writings, an Egyp- tian papyrus. Before this scroll of the earliest dynasty the authors of the classical Greek and Latin periods seemed modern. There was an audacity about this Egyptian writer that inspired wonder on the part of the reader; his views were very pleasing on account of their originality; his statements were clear and concise; he indulged in no theories, and made no reference to other works; what he wrote was stated as fact, fixed and immutable as the laws governing the universe. Either the author of these hie- roglyphical lines was the colossal prevaricator of his age or he possessed supernatural powers; for he professed ability to restore disembodied spirits to their former human habitations, provided certain conditions were com- plied with, and claimed that any physician, following the instructions laid down in the manuscript, could produce the same marvelous results. Doctor Paulus Androcydes was an extremely skeptical man, yet, in the present instance, the perusal of this pa- pyrus had made an impression such as he had never before experienced. He was irritated beyond measure for even dreaming for a moment that there was the least probabil-