118 JEROME CARDAN. 



include roses, for by the scent of roses some brains are 

 made warmer. The reverend lord should not sleep upon 

 feathers, but upon unspun silk 1 , and be particular upon 

 that point. The heating of the spine and vena cava on 

 a feather bed would cause matter straightway to ascend 

 into the head. If one silk mattress proved too hard a 

 couch, several might be placed upon each other. The 

 patient, too, should lie never on his back, but on his face 

 or side ; by lying on the face, it was to be remembered 

 that he might obtain relief, from a loss, during the night, 

 of water by the mouth. The pillow should be of dry 

 straw, finely chopped, and if that seemed to his grace too 

 hard, it might be stuffed with well dried sea-weed ; by no 

 means with feather. 



In matters of hygiene, whatever may be said of Car- 

 dan's theory, his practice was, on the whole, extremely 

 sensible. His just hatred of feather beds, and his vigorous 

 use of the shower-bath, may have done much to lengthen 

 out the later years of his own life, in spite of all the in- 

 eradicable evils of his constitution. 



The great physician further advised that the arch- 

 bishop's pillow-case should be of linen, not of leather, 

 and should be sprinkled at night with a drying perfume, 

 made to the prescription which he gave. His grace was 

 not to go to bed immediately after eating, but to wait at 

 1 " Stupa serici." Cons. Med. p. 134. 



