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

in the resurrection of the body.' This worthy Saint had really much common sense, a thing seldom found in theo- logians. I met him about a hundred years ago. He had transmigrated to a gnat-fly, and was busily engaged in an- noying a Papal bull by discussing the Manichsean heresy. Another late writer, Mariette Bey, claims that our bodies were embalmed to preserve them until the spirit was purified in purgatory, to be re-united to the body at the resurrection. Perhaps some of the authors on this special subject were inspired with knowledge I do not possess; however, moderns have always been fond of writing ancient history, as it enables them to deal in pleasant fiction and ignore unpleasant facts. It is need- less for me to add that I would not be standing in your presence had I not been properly embalmed." " But the cat was cremated ! " exclaimed Paulus An- drocydes. " What has become of Anubis ? " " I was Anubis," answered Athothis. " You surprise me by alluding to Herodotus and Saint Augustine as modern writers," said Paulus Androcydes. " Yet, I am even more astonished to find you familiar with their works since they came into the world centuries after your transmigration from the human form." " You must certainly admit that these writers were modern when compared to me," responded Athothis, smilingly. "As regards my more recent knowledge of books, that may readily be explained. While I inhab- ited your cat, for example, I read almost all the tomes on your library shelves. Many of these classics were perused centuries before you were born ; for know that, on several occasions, I have been an inmate of immense libraries; thus, I once existed as a pet crane in the 3