“Let that pass, my friend, let that pass,” said the Fox; “everything has an end. Prudence and generosity forbid our dwelling on this subject.”
“In short,” replied Médor, somewhat crest-fallen (Médor was our hero’s name), “we agreed to form schools of secret medicine, and faculties of clandestine surgery, under the presidency of the Cock of Æsculapius and the Serpent of Hippocrates.
“Every animal, part of whose flesh or intestines had been used as a medicine, laid claim to the invention of the science, and all of them, from the least to the greatest, held that they each had been used by man-doctors as universal panaceas. Would you believe it, these biped physicians dared to prescribe Tortoise broth for languor, and jelly of Viper for impurity of the blood!”
“Médor, you are wise, and if ever we add an Academy of Sciences to our journal, you shall belong to it.”
“To the Academy, Prince?”
“No, to our journal; who do you take yourself for? Continue.”
“You have not forgotten, gentlemen, that your humble servant objected chiefly to the diet, not to the science”——
“Is it much longer?” inquired the Fox.
“I must finish my narrative, sir; that is all I can conscientiously say.”
“You are honest, but that is an useless quality nowadays.”