54 JEROME CARDAN. 



the forehead as there are upon the hand ; Jerome applied 

 Astrology in a minute and systematic way to the eluci- 

 dation of them. 



This important work was written at Milan in the year 

 1550. Until that year all had gone well in Pavia, but 

 then the professor's salary of two hundred and forty gold 

 crowns being again stopped by the troubles, he remained 

 in Milan 1 . In the succeeding year he resumed his lectures. 

 During the vacation year 1550, then, Cardan wrote 

 thirteen books of Metoposcopy, illustrated with a great 

 number of plates; but it was not until one hundred and 

 eight years afterward that they were first partially made 

 public by a bookseller in Paris. 



A few words will explain the nature of the science. Of 

 lines upon the forehead, it is necessary for the metopos- 

 copist to observe the position, the direction, length, and 

 colour, and the observation is to be taken at a proper 

 time; that is to say, in the morning, when the subject of 

 it has not broken fast 3 . The forehead was mapped out by 

 Cardan as an astrologer, much as the head has been since 

 mapped out by Gall as a phrenologist. Seven lines drawn 

 at equal distances, one above another, horizontally across 

 the whole forehead, beginning close over the eyes, indicate 

 respectively the regions of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, 

 the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The signification of 

 1 De Vita Propria, cap. iv. 2 Metoposcopia, p. 6. 



