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

Pliny, for instance, says : ' It reveals the secrets of the mind—one man is heard to disclose the contents of his will, another lets fall an expression of fatal import, and so fails to keep to himself words which will be sure to come home to him with a cut throat.' How many a man has met death in this fashion ?" " Simeon Seth states that 6 the immoderate use of wine dissolves the vital tone, depresses natural heat, and occa- sions apoplexy, epilepsy, and tumors of the body.' " Avicenna insists that the free use of wine l induces diseases of the liver and brain, and debilitates the nerves; that—' " " Stop !" cried Paulus Androcydes. " These writers speak of persons who use such divine liquors in excess. Hippocrates was a lover of good liquors. Celsus calls them the good juices. Paulus iEgineta asserts that they .give gladness and pleasure to the soul. Rhazes proclaims that wine warms the stomach and liver, and thus bright- ens the mind." " But no man drinks wine in moderation," interrupted Athothis. " If he drink it at all, he doth it in such a manner as to experience the toxic effects. It is the grad- ual and increasing love for liquor that can not be con- quered by the victim of Set. Philosophers may discourse learnedly of moderation, yet poets will sing the praises of the garlanded cup. Divines will preach a temperance they do not practice, while doctors will continue to pre- scribe alcohol along* with the rest of poisons. The evils wrought by alcohol can never be estimated save by its real inventor, Set. Blighted hopes, woman's tears, broken hearts, cruel fears; man's despair, mother's moans, pov- erty, and children's groans." " Enough of this twaddle !" exclaimed Paulus Andro-