270 JEROME CARDAN 



sounded. Then, when Anatomy sprang to the front 

 as the potent ally of Medicine, the science of healing 

 entered upon a fresh stage, but this new force did not 

 make itself felt soon enough to seduce Cardan from the 

 altars of the ancients to the worship of new gods. As 

 long as he lived he was a follower of the great masters, 

 though at the same time his admiration of the teaching 

 of Vesalius was enthusiastic and profound. His love of 

 truth and sound learning forbade him to give unreflect- 

 ing adhesion to the precepts of any man, however emi- 

 nent, and when he found that Galen was a careless 

 commentator on Hippocrates, 1 and failed to elucidate 

 the difficulties with which he professed to deal, he did 

 not spare his censure. 2 In the De Subtilitate he speaks 

 of him as " Verbosus et studio contradicendi taedulus ut 

 alterum vix ferre queas, in reliquo gravis jactura artium 

 posita sit, quam nostrae aetatis viri restituere conati 

 sunt." 3 But as Galen's name is quoted as an authority 

 on almost every page of the Consilia Medica, it may be 

 assumed that Cardan's faith in his primary theories was 

 unshaken. In his Commentaries on Hippocrates, Galen 

 professes a profound respect for his master, but the two 

 great men must be regarded as the leaders of rival 

 schools ; indeed it could hardly be otherwise, seeing how 

 vast was the mass of knowledge which Galen added to 

 the art during his lifetime. 



Hippocrates, by denying the supernatural origin of 

 disease, by his method of diagnosis, by the importance 

 he attached to air and diet, by his discriminating use of 

 drugs, and by the simplicity of his system generally, 



1 Opera, torn. ix. p. i. 



2 De Immortalitate Animorum (Lyons, 1545), p. 73. De Varietate, 

 p. 77. Opera, torn. i. p. 135. 



8 De Subtilitate, p. 445. 



