AN OLD FAMILY. 7 



infant's probable longevity. The father of Clara lived 

 seventy-five years, and his brother, Angiolo, lived eighty- 

 five. In the Cardans, the habitual tenacity of life was 

 most remarkable. The grandfather of Fazio, the mathe- 

 matician, was another Fazio; he had three sons: Gio- 

 vanni, who lived to the age of ninety-four; Aldo, who 

 lived eighty-eight years; and Antonio, the father of the 

 second Fazio, who lived to the age of eighty-six. Gio- 

 vanni, the first of these, uncle to Fazio the scholar, had 

 two sons, Antonio and Angiolo, of which the former 

 lived to the age of eighty-eight, and the latter very nearly 

 reached a hundred. This Angiolo became known to the 

 young son of Fazio as a decrepid old man, who, at the 

 age of eighty, claimed paternity of two decrepid-looking 

 children, and regained his sight. Even of these children 

 one lived seventy years. To this enumeration must be 

 added Gothardo, a brother to the second Fazio Cardan, 

 and uncle of the child, who died eventually at the age of 

 eighty-four. Since several of these men were living in 

 the year 1501, Clara Micheria could take into her calcu- 

 lation a part only of these facts ; there was enough, how- 

 ever, in her knowledge to remind her that the unwelcome 

 son came of a long-lived stock, and that if he was to be 

 accounted a discredit, he would probably discredit her for 

 many years to come. 



During the first month of the boy's life his nurse was 



