bringing about the suppression of the evil. As many of our readers will remember, the art collections of European capitals contain admirably painted specimens of Dutch and Flemish genre pictures representing every phase of this uroscopic fraud, and these striking masterpieces, revealing, as they undoubtedly did to the community at large, the ridiculous character of the claims made by the charlatans, could scarcely have failed to give a deadly blow to the fraud. (See Fig. 17.)
In the early part of the sixteenth century Jean Fernel of Amiens (1497-1558) was one of the leading medical authorities of France. After receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine at Paris, in 1530, he settled in that city and soon acquired considerable reputation, not only as a practitioner but also as a lecturer. In 1545 he was called upon to take charge, professionally, of Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry, the son of Francis the First, King of France. About the same time he was asked to serve as First Physician to the Dauphin, but he was not disposed to accept the latter position, as he disliked the duties of the office and also because he feared that they would interfere with his favorite studies. He pleaded poor health, and his excuse was accepted as valid. That Fernel was held in very high esteem by the royal family is evident from the events which succeeded this refusal. In the first place, it was insisted that he should accept the stipend (600 livres) attached to the office, as a mark of the royal favor; and then, in 1547, when Henry was crowned king (Henry the Second), Fernel was urged to become his First Physician; but again he declined the honor, this time on the ground that Louis de Bourges, who had held the position with great credit under Francis the First (Henry's father), was entitled to be retained in office. The King yielded to Fernel's generous intervention in behalf of de Bourges. But in 1556, when the latter died, Fernel felt obliged to accept the position which had then become vacant; and from that time forward, until the time of his death on April 26, 1558, he accompanied the King on all his military expeditions. As he did not possess a robust constitution,
