224 JEROME CARDAN. 



urge, " is clear from the reasons which my son has ad- 

 duced, for he said, if I had known of the poison I should 

 not have given the cake to others, should have eaten none 

 myself: and also when I heard that I was detected I 

 should have taken flight, especially as I was advised by 

 many so to do. But I was innocent and ignorant of this 

 deed, and, as I said, already penitent. My servant did 

 it, in the hope, I think, of reward." Having cited this 

 statement (which it must be owned was not worth much), 

 Cardan returned to the medical evidence, and laid stress 

 on the testimony of three physicians who had visited the 

 deceased when living, and who all agreed that she died 

 of natural disease. One of the three, a man of no com- 

 mon erudition, named the disease, and said that it was a 

 fever called lipyria. Having spoken further upon that 

 head, and again adduced the authority of Galen, Cardan 

 next 'urged the fact that the other persons who had 

 eaten of the cake recovered after a day or two from its 

 effects. 



A witness said that arsenic was given to the deceased 

 on the tenth day after her confinement, and then, not 

 succeeding in its purpose, was again administered. By 

 reference to the apothecary's books, it was to be seen that 

 she had been ill from the eleventh day before her confine- 

 ment; that is to say, from the 25th of January till her 

 death. 



