FERNEL. 103 



affectionate compulsion to expound that to them. A 

 tract of his own on Venesection he was also perforce 

 lecturing about, when he was interrupted by the command 

 of Henry II, then dauphin, that he would attend on a, 

 great lady, whom he favoured, or who favoured him, in a 

 case of considerable urgency. His effective aid secured 

 to Fernel the dauphin's gratitude. The prince made 

 him his chief physician, and the courtiers flocked about 

 him, but he contemned a court life, and turned back to 

 study : he refused to live at court. Nevertheless, the 

 grateful prince did not withdraw from him the appoint- 

 ment or its salary. Again, in Paris, he was hindered 

 from his studies and his duties as a teacher by the press of 

 patients, for he never winnowed out the poor from among 

 those to whom he gave time and attention. No poor sick 

 man asked help of him and failed to get it. When, at 

 last, Henry II. became king, Fernel was compelled, in 

 spite of himself, to officiate as the first court physician. 

 Among other incidents of his life, one of the most notable 

 was the acquisition of the friendship of Catherine of 

 Medicis, who believed that his skill had saved her from a 

 state of childlessness, and on the birth of her first child 

 gave him ten thousand dollars for his fee, at the same 

 time ordering a like fee to be paid to him at the birth of 

 every succeeding son or daughter. Fernel's pure student 

 character will not be held in the less tender recollection 



