GIANBATISTA. 203 



on account of poverty, found few who cared to accept 

 their hiring, the infant fell next into the hands of a disso- 

 lute woman, by whom it was fed sparely with old milk, 

 and more^freely with chewed bread. In its third or fourth 

 year it had a tumid belly, and was seized with a fever, from 

 which it recovered with much difficulty. After his re- 

 covery he was found to be deaf on the right side, in con- 

 sequence of a discharge that had, during his illness, broken 

 through that ear. As Jerome's affairs mended, his son 

 came to be better nourished, and received abundant edu- 

 cation. He became in a manner learned, and was espe- 

 cially a good musician, both playing on the lyre and 

 singing to the cymbals. At the age of twenty-two, having 

 failed previously, he obtained his doctorate, and two years 

 afterwards succeeded in obtaining his enrolment among 

 the members of the Milanese College of Physicians. He 

 lived with his father, who took pains to introduce him 

 into practice. 



Personally, he had grown up into much resemblance to 

 his grandfather Fazio. He had the same small, white, 

 restless eyes, and a fair skin. He had large, broad features, 

 and a big, round forehead, foxy hair, and a beard that 

 came late, for it had only begun to form a reddish down 

 upon his face in the year at which we now arrive. He 

 was small of stature, even somewhat smaller than his father, 

 who was a man of but a woman's height. He had more 



