56 JEROME CARDAN. 



the majority, but I cite none of these; let it be enough to 

 add concerning warts, that a woman who has a wart at 

 the root of the nose, between the eyes, is a most atrocious 

 monster, guilty or capable of the worst crimes that a foul 

 imagination can conceive, and that she is destined to a 

 wretched end 1 . A woman with a wart upon her left 

 cheek, a little to the left of where the dimple is or should 

 be, will be eventually poisoned by her husband. 



The published work is but a fragment of the entire 

 treatise, which in other books was made to explain on the 

 same principles the meaning of lines upon the knee, arm, 

 navel, and foot, they being discussed and illustrated as 

 minutely as the lines upon the forehead 3 . Such was the 

 result obtained by building one false science on another. 

 Astrology based upon astronomical observations error 

 based upon truth had in it some tangible matter ; but 

 Metoposcopy based upon Astrology error based upon 

 error is one of the most unsubstantial speculations that 

 was ever built up by a scientific man. 



The books on Subtilty occupied Cardan during three 

 years at Pavia, and were, in part, first published at 

 Nuremberg; shortly afterwards, more fully, at Paris, in 

 the year 155 1 3 . They acquired great popularity, and 



* Metoposcopia, p. 188. 



2 De Libris Propriis (ed. 1557). 



3 " Hieronimi Cardani Medici Mediolanensis De Subtilitate, Libri xxi. 



