270 JEROME CARDAN. 



conjunction of the planets had not been in opposition to 

 that remedy. When the disease abated, Cardan began 

 to write, at its suggestion, a tract " On the Teeth," and 

 returned to Milan, when the erysipelas had not quite 

 disappeared. There he had presently acute twinges of 

 gout in the knee, and applying those symptoms to his 

 written commentaries on the teeth, he tried certain experi- 

 ments, succeeded to his wish, and was walking about the 

 streets a month before he might have expected that he 

 should be able to leave the house. The reputation of a 

 new discovery in medicine brought fresh applications 

 from men eager to make trial of his skill ; and he was 

 thus enabled, before leaving Milan, to recover a part of 

 his lost wealth and lost reputation, healing patients, and 

 repairing some of the loss caused by the lavishing of 

 money in his son's defence. 



No better hope of a subsistence was then visible than 

 Milan offered. Pavia he had resigned, the offers that 

 came from Bologna he had justly scorned, and he was 

 finding friends and some repute again in his own town, 

 though it was most hateful to him ; for it was beset with 

 bitter recollections. Four senators in Milan severally 

 recommended him to seek for a professorship among them- 

 selves, and held out at the same time strong hopes of 

 success. He had begun accordingly to seek an honourable 

 appointment in his native town, when he was checked 



