Please tell me you're taking the pthisis with thisis!

Well, I meant the root that phthisis comes from. Watkins reconstructs a formulaic sentence / phrase from PIE: roughly "The hero destroys the dragon." It occupies about the last 1/3 of the book. It's really the best example of what IE philologists do, written in English, and easily accessible (in that you can find it in public libraries and bookstores).