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

an extravagant price from an Arab sheik, through the American consul at Alexandria, who had forwarded with it a certificate, duly signed and adorned with many seals, stating that the mummy was several thousand years old, and remained in the same condition as when found. What if the mummy so quietly reclining there was the author of this hieroglyphical writing ? What if the cat was now the abode of Athothis? Here was the rarest opportu- nity ever offered a savant of the nineteenth century to test the marvelous experiment of a necromancer who had lived centuries before; and most fitting conclusion of all, this test could be applied to the very individual who had asserted the possession of what seemed to be supernat- ural power; for if the mummy were really the Egyptian author, and his spirit had transmigrated until it now re- sided in Anubis, it would be a simple matter, according to the directions laid down in the papyrus, to restore a disembodied spirit to its original human habitation. Doctor Paulus Androcydes trembled violently with nervous agitation as he pondered over the subject, and his excited brain was almost overcome by a violent con- gestion. He grew faint and dizzy. Staggering from his chair, he supported his feeble limbs by holding to the wall until he reached a book-case. Here he stretched out his hand toward an upper shelf, and taking down a small cut-glass flagon of antique design, filled with an amber-colored cordial, he withdrew the crystal stopper, and placing the flask to his .mouth, swallowed a large quantity of the stimulating liquid. The cordial revived him almost immediately; a cheerful glow spread over his entire body, and he felt like a strong young man, with the will and energy necessary to overcome any ordinary physical or mental obstacle.