A CONSULTATION OF PHYSICIANS. 165 



At the second hour of the day it was summer time 

 the three physicians were assembled at the bedside, the 

 father of the patient being present. Delia Croce was 

 the first to express his opinion, then Cardan followed, 

 Cavenega being the last speaker, as the senior man. 

 Cardan said: i( This is a case of opisthotonos." The first 

 physician stared, for he had never heard the word before. 

 It is a word still commonly used in medicine to express 

 the excessive action of one class of muscles by which limbs 

 or body are curved backwards. Delia Croce said: " How 

 can you ascertain that ?" Cardan showed how the child's 

 head was forcibly held back, and could not be pulled 

 forwards into natural position. Delia Croce lauded 

 courteously his discernment. Said the father then to 

 Jerome, " You appear to know what the disease is, do 

 you know also how it can be remedied ?" Cardan 

 turned to his colleagues, and proceeded glibly to quote 

 aphorisms of Hippocrates concerning fever and convul- 

 sions. The colleagues, conscious that there could result 

 only loss of dignity from any words of quarrel, flattered 

 the unrecognised physician with some praise, and left to 

 him the treatment of the case. He ordered a light 

 milk diet, by denying the nurse meat, prescribed fomen- 

 tations and external application of linseed oil and lilies, 

 ordered the infant to be kept in a warm room and gently 

 rocked to sleep. 



