JEROME CARDAN 59 



for him as well. The description of the meeting of the 

 doctors round the sick child's bed, of their quotations 

 from Hippocrates, of the uncertainty and helplessness 

 of the orthodox practitioners, and of the ready resource 

 of the free-lance who happens also to be the teller of 

 the story is a richly typical one. 1 " We, the physicians 

 and the father of the child, met about seven in the 

 morning, and Delia Croce made a few general observa- 

 tions on death, for he knew that Sfondrato was a 

 sensible man, and he himself was both honoured and 

 learned. Cavenago kept silence at this stage, because 

 the last word had been granted to him. Then I said, 

 ' Do you not see that the child is suffering from Opis- 

 thotonos ? ' whereupon the first physician stood as one 

 dazed, as if I were trying to trouble his wits by my 

 hard words. But Delia Croce at once swept aside all 

 uncertainty by saying, ' He means the backward con- 

 traction of the muscles.' I confirmed his words, and 

 added, ' I will show you what I mean.' Whereupon I 

 raised the boy's head, which the doctors and all the 

 rest believed was hanging down through weakness, and 

 by its own weight, and bade them put it into its former 

 position. Then Sfondrato turned to me, and said, 'As 

 you have discovered what the disease is, tell us likewise 

 what is the remedy therefor.' Since no one else spoke, 

 I turned towards him and careful lest I should do hurt 

 to the credit I had gained already, I said, ' You know 

 what Hippocrates lays down in a case like this -febrem 

 convulsioni' and I recited the aphorism. Then I 

 ordered a fomentation, and an application of lint mois- 

 tened with linseed-oil and oil of lilies, and gave directions 

 that the child should be gently handled until such time 



1 There is a full account of this episode in De Libris Propriis, 

 p. 128, and in De Vita Propria^ ch. xl. p. 133. 



