tus. But it would
appear that, in 1536 or 1537, he negotiated with the College to obtain a
quasi-recognition on conditions which he afterwards describes as
disgraceful to himself, and that this was granted to him.[73]

Whatever his qualifications may have been, Cardan had no scruples in
treating the few patients who came to him. The first case he notes is that
of Donato Lanza,[74] a druggist, who had suffered for many years with
blood-spitting, which ailment he treated successfully. Success of this
sort was naturally helpful, but far more important than Lanza's cure was
the introduction given by the grateful patient to the physician,
commending him to Francesco Sfondrato, a noble Milanese, a senator, and a
member of the Emperor's privy council. The eldest son of this gentleman
had suffered many months from convulsions, and Cardan worked a cure in his
case without difficulty. Shortly afterwards another child, only ten months
old, was attacked by the same complaint, and was treated by Luca della
Croce, the procurator of the College of Physicians, of which Sfondrato was
a patron. As the attack threatened to be a serious one, Della Croce
recommended that another physician, Ambrogio Cavenago, should be called
in, but the father, remembering Cardan's cure of Lanza, wished 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.[75] "We, the physicians and the father of the child,
met about seven in the morning, and Della Croce made a few general
observations 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 Opisthotonos?' whereupon the
first physician stood as one dazed, as if I were trying to trouble his
wits by my hard words. But Della Croce at once swept aside all uncertainty
by saying, 'He means the backward contraction 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 posi