SIGNED. Athothis. A Satire on Modern Medicine by Minor, Thomas Chalmers - 1887

Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1887. First edition.

A 19th CENTURY SATIRIC NOVEL PROMOTING MEDICAL REFORM BY COMPARING ANCIENT EGYPTIAN WITH "MODERN" MEDICINE--INSCRIBED BY THE PHYSICIAN AUTHOR TO A CINCINNATI POLITICAL BOSS.

8 inches tall hardcover, blue cloth binding with gilt title to cover including a smiling sun behind a camel, pyramids, and sphynx of Egypt, gilt title to spine. Inscribed on front flyleaf to George B. Cox, Esq. and signed by author. viii, 194 pp, near fine in custom archival mylar cover. A SUPERB SIGNED ASSOCIATION COPY OF THIS SCARCE TITLE. Dedication to Dr. John S. Billings, Assistant Surgeon-General of the United States Army, by his old-time friend and admirer, The Author. The story traces fictional Dr. Androcydes from ancient Egypt, who raises the spirit of Anthothis--they visit a modern physician and hospital, and compare ancient with modern medicine, concluding that the hospital is run in the interest of the doctor, and not for the benefit of the sick. They then visit a modern pharmacy and discover that the label on a bottle is no sure indication of its contents.

FROM A CONTEMPORARY REVIEW IN GALLIARD'S MEDICAL JOURNAL (1887): "This work is very cleverly written, and, under the guise of satire, contains much that is valuable and instructive. ... It is a production which will, no doubt, be very widely appreciated by the medical profession."

THOMAS CHALMERS MINOR (1846-1912) received his M. D. at the Medical College of Ohio. After graduation he served as internein the St. John's and Good Samaritan hospitals and at the end of his internship went to Europe and attended the hospitals in London, Paris, and Wurzburg. In 1868 he was appointed district physician in Cincinnati and in 1872 he was elected member of the Board of Health and was health officer of the city in 1878-9, during the epidemic of Yellow Fever. He was a trustee of the University of Cincinnati for six years, and in 1902 he was appointed examining surgeon of the fire and police department, a position he held until his death. In1878 he published a volume on "Yellow Fever in the Ohio Valley in 1878." Among his most notable works were "Erysipelas and Child-bed Fever"; "Scarlatinal Statistics"; "Epidemiology of Ohio"; "Cerebro-spinal Meningitis"; "Medicine in Ancient Rome"; "Medicine in the Middle Ages"; "The Medical School of Salerno," and "Prostitution in Antiquity." In lighter vein were: "Athothis, a satire on modern medicine" (offered here), "The Evil that has been said of Doctors," and "The Good that has been said of Doctors." --A. G. Drury, in Howard A. Kelly and Walter L. Burrage. Dictionary of American Medical Biography. Lives of Eminent Physicians of the United States and Canada, from the Earliest Times. Appleton, 1928.

PROVENANCE: GEORGE BARNSDALE COX (1853-1916) was a political boss in Cincinnati, a member of the Republican Party, and associate of William Howard Taft. Cox was elected to the city council in 1879, serving two terms. He served most notably on the Decennial Equalization Board where he was able to fix the tax rate for prominent properties like the Shubert Theater, in which he became an investor. He also served significantly on the Board of Public Affairs in this turbulent era of the notorious Courthouse Riots. He ran unsuccessfully for Hamilton County Clerk in 1884 and 1888, being the only candidate on his party's ticket to lose in the latter year. This did not prevent his ongoing rise to local dominance. Charles Phelps Taft, the rich lawyer brother of future President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft, owned and edited The Cincinnati Times-Star, which strongly supported the Cox machine, to the progressive reformer's embarrassment. in 1905, Secretary of War Taft called Cox's machine a "local despotism" for the benefit of cronies and big corporations. While Taft refused to support the Hamilton County Republican slate, he supported the Republican Governor Myron Herrick. However, voters did not split their tickets, leading to a statewide Democratic victory.