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

according to Serapion, strengthen the stomach, and are likewise recommended by Galen for obstruction of the liver and spleen." " Hold!" exclaimed Athothis. " I fear you have studied your stomach more than any other part of the anatomy. Yet, as Bacchus in ' The Frogs' of Aristo- phanes cried to Hercules, so I cry to thee, ' Teach me to dine!' But one thing is lacking at the festal board : where is the wine ?" Paulus Androcydes laughed goocl-humoredly, and answered: " You forget, my Egyptian friend, that we are not among a wine drinking people. In this country our ideas of public morality are such that we do not drink openly. "VYe keep our private bottles, or we take our stimulants in quiet bar-rooms or isolated beer-halls, and at dinner-tables strive to appear sober. The pale- faced man, by whom }'ou are seated, is the Reverend Timotheus St. John, rector of All Innocent's Church. This poor clergyman would not dare to taste wine publicly, lest he might be scandalized and accused of open dissipation; even when he takes a little brandy with his quinine, following the popular prescription (for, like many clergymen, he suffers from malaria); he bars his study door, pulls down the blinds, and gropes on the dusty upper shelf of his library, where, concealed behind five cumbrous volumes on ' Infant Baptism,' he finds the mysterious flask that contains a potent remedy, and swallows it without water. The bald-headed, red-faced man, sitting at my side, is the Honorable R. R. Subsidy, formerly a senator, but now a candidate for any thing that pays. He is an astute lawyer and fine politician, intelli- gent enough to know the difference between a retainer