Punch (99.1890)

December 27, 1890.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. Hi

SCENE —Early morn, in the neighbourhood of the Saronic Gulf. A mirhle Temple, olive-shadowed, and overlooking the sea,
Hjgfia discovered discoursing with her venerable Sire, To them enter Mr. Person:, accompanied by "a burly man of middle
height, with a countenance remarkahle from its depth of expression and strength of contour."

Mr. Punch. Greetings, Hygeia ! ,; I hope I don't intrude " (as Paulas Speculator would say) upon the musings
of the ancient Sire of Medicine and his daughter, wcll-heloved of modern man.
Hygeia (affably). Mr. Punch could never be an intruder anywhere.

Mr. Punch. You do me proud, Hygeia. Pray grant me the additional favour of introducing me to your father.

JEsculapius. Mr. Punch requires no introduction. Moreover, though that satirical dog, Lucian, represents me as
■wrangling with Hercules about precedence, " in a manner unseemly, and quite strange to the banquets of the Gods," yet
indeed I am too little of a parvenu to be proud, or of a quack to be quarrelsome.

Mr. Punch. Only what was to be expected of " the blameless physician" of Epidaurus. I wish that some of your
later followers, British and Teuton, would take example from their great prototype. Then we should bo spared some
unseemly professional squabbles, and much peevishly polemical pamphleteering.

JEsculapius. Who, Mr. Punch, is your companion ? I perceive by his manner that he warmly echoes your wish.

Mr. Punch. Like Hermes of old, I am privileged to act as ambassador and intermediary between the Immortals and
mankind. This is Dr. Robeut Koch, the great German bacteriologist, and dauntless foe of the deadly Bacillus.

JEsculapius. " Whom not to know argues oneself unknown." By the beard of Jove, that thrasonic " strong man,"
Hercules (albeit he called me " paltry herb-doctor and mountebank "), with all his heroic exploits against huge Hydras and
swarming Stymphalian Birds, performed tasks not more arduous, and infinitely loss useful, than he whose life-long battle has
been against the microscopic scourges of mankind.

Dr. Koch. But my battle is not yet won, yEsculapius. I am sorry that some of my over-eager disciples fail to dis-
tinguish between sounding the charge and blowing the trumpet of final victory.

Mr. Punch. Bravo, Modesty! Sensationalism in Science, particularly in Medical Science, is singularly detestabI-3,

So many cockadoodledoo

Too soon, Fame's temple plotting in !
You 're modest, Koch, my learned Teu-
-ton, as when studying at the TJ-
-niversity of Gottingen!

Dr. Koch. I trust so. But, Sir, it is not in Berlin or in London as it was in old Epidaurus. A modern Prometheus,
even, would have his beneficent fire puffed into premature notoriety by the accursed, ubiquitous, indiscreet, flatulent, swag-
gering, sensation-mongering spirit of Advertisement, almost before he had time to appraise or to apply it. My friend Pastecjj
"and myself should not be held responsible for the unmeasured pretensions of our hasty exploiters.