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Well, he said, that was surely an extraordinary drink to be given

to a person in his condition.

Not so extraordinary, I replied, if you bear in mind that in

former days, as is commonly said, before the time of Herodicus,

the guild of Asclepius did not practise our present system of

medicine, which may be said to educate diseases. But Herodicus,

being a trainer, and himself of a sickly constitution, by a

combination of training and doctoring found out a way of

torturing first and chiefly himself, and secondly the rest of the

world.

How was that? he said.

By the invention of lingering death; for he had a mortal disease

which he perpetually tended, and as recovery was out of the

question, he passed his entire life as a valetudinarian; he could

do nothing but attend upon himself, and he was in constant

torment whenever he departed in anything from his usual regimen,

and so dying hard, by the help of science he struggled on to old

age.

A rare reward of his skill!