A MOTHER DEAD A DAUGHTER BORN. 163 



of planks. It caused the bed to tremble. After these 

 events his mother died; but Jerome adds: " Of the signi- 

 fication of the noises I am ignorant 1 ." 



Turning from death to sickness, we revert to the new 

 patient from whose friendship better days were to be 

 hoped. There was a druggist named Donato Lanza 2 , 

 who had been cured by Cardan of a spitting of blood 

 with which he had been for many years afflicted, and 

 who therefore looked up to his benefactor as the most 

 eminent of all physicians. He having the ear of a distin- 

 guished senator, deep in the counsels of the emperor, 

 Francisco Sfondrato, of Cremona, often endeavoured to 

 persuade 'him that he would do well to obtain Jerome 

 Cardan's opinion upon the condition of his eldest son. 

 The boy suffered for many months from puerile con- 

 vulsions, and was to be counted rather among the dead 



1 De Vita Propr. p. 224. The spirit-rappers of the present day are 

 welcome to the exact text: " Cum mater esset in extremis, experrectus, 

 et illucescente altius sole, videos et nihil videns XT. ictus (illos enim 

 numeravi) audivi, quasi aquae guttatim in pavimento cadentis, nocte 

 autem praecedente, circiter cxx. prope numeravi, sed dubitaveram, quod 

 hos a dextril sentirem, ne quis domesticorum mini anxio illuderet, ut hi 

 ictus non viderentur in die contigisse, nisi ut nocturnis fidem facerent. 

 Paulo post ictum quasi curris tabulis onusti simul se exonerantis, 

 supra laquearia sensi, tremente cubiculo. Mortua est ut dixi mater, 

 ictuum significatum ignoro." 



2 De Libris Propriis (1557), pp. 123130, for the next story, and for 

 the two cases afterwards narrated. The account of the introduction to 

 Sfondrato is amplified from another narrative of the same facts in the 

 De Vita Prop. pp. 188192. 



M2 



