that she disguised herself in a man's clothes 

 to attend the lectures of her father Hieropha- 

 lus. The ladies of Athens were so enthusias- 

 tically fond of this female physician, that on 

 her account they procured the abrogation of 

 the law which prohibited women from the 

 exercise of that profession. This extraordi- 

 nary woman being consulted by one of 

 Ariston's friends, undertook to relieve him 

 from the importunity of the fly. She no 

 sooner saw her new patient than he asked her 

 what he had upon his nose. ' A fly ' replied 

 Agnodice boldly, and having by this artifice 

 gained the confidence of Ariston, she proceed- 

 ed to inquire, with the grave and sagacious 

 air of a physician, the origin and symptoms 

 of his disorder, the habits of this pertinacious 

 fly, and at what hours it came and went, she 

 then ordered him draughts that were perfectly 

 innocent and having continued these several 

 days, she at last informed him that she was 

 about to extirpate the fly. Upon this she took 

 a knife from her pocket, drew it gently over 

 his nose, and immediately showed him a fly 

 which she had concealed in her hand, ' yes, 

 there it is,' cried Ariston ' I know it well, it is 

 the very same that has so long tormented me.' 

 Thus did this disciple of ^Esculapius cure the 

 philosopher of his phantasm, and so true is it 

 that most of our pains as well as our pleas- 

 ures depend on the imagination." 



Your constant reader, 



Antiquarius. 



