10 JEROME CARDAN. 



CHAPTER H. 



IN WHAT WAY THE CHILD EARNED A MOST HOLY AND MOST HAPPY GOD- 

 FATHER. 



AFTER the death of its first nurse by plague, Clara 

 Micheria had returned for a short time to her infant 1 , but a 

 new mother having been hired for it, she again obtained 

 exemption from her burden. The nurse, who in the 

 second month of the child's life became the third to whom 

 it clung as to a mother, did not accept her charge without 

 due knowledge of the fact that it had been kissed by the 

 very plague itself, and bore the marks upon its countenance. 

 To the new nurse, therefore, the baby was delivered by 

 Isidoro dei Resti, naked and wet, out of a warm bath of 

 vinegar. With clothes, infection might have gone into 

 the poor woman's family so men 5 at any rate, believed 

 the clothes, therefore, were burnt ; vinegar, it was hoped, 

 would disinfect the child. 



By this nurse the "child was taken to Moirago, a place 

 distant about seven miles from Milan, on the road from 

 Pavia to Binasco. The infant did not thrive under her 



1 De Propr. Vit. Lib. (ed. Naudsei), pp. 12,"13, for the facts stated in 

 this and the succeeding page. 



