Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/373

 owing to lack of space, I shall not be able to quote in full the appropriate portions of this most interesting narrative, I will furnish an abridged English translation of the story as it appears in Platter's journal or diary. In all its more important details the account reads as follows:—

Our little party was composed of three persons, viz., Thomas Schoepfius, the schoolmaster of St. Pierre; a Parisian by the name of Robert who happened to be passing then through Basel on his way to Geneva; and myself, a lad of sixteen. We traveled on horseback and all three of us were armed with rapiers. My outfit, which was handed to me by my father shortly before our departure, consisted of two extra shirts and a few pocket-handkerchiefs, wrapped up in a piece of waxed cloth. In the matter of funds for the journey I received from my father three crowns in silver and four gold pieces which, for further security, he sewed into my vest. In addition, he presented me with a rare piece of silver money which had been issued by the Cardinal Mathieu Schiner, of the Canton de Valais, who personally commanded the Swiss soldiers in their successful combat with the troops of Louis the Twelfth, at Marignan. It was a coin, therefore, which possessed considerable historical value. My mother also bestowed upon me a gold coin (a couronne). As a last injunction my father begged me not to forget that, in order to procure the money which he had just placed in my hands, as well as that which he had already paid for my horse, he had been obliged to mortgage his property.

We left the city at nine o'clock on the morning of Oct. 10th, 1552, and at the same moment the news reached us that the Plague had made its appearance in Basel. This was a most depressing piece of intelligence, especially as we were already in great fear that the army of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, which was at that time on its way to the siege of Metz, would utterly destroy our city.

We arrived at Berne early on the morning of Oct. 12th, and, after leaving our horses at the inn, The Falcon, lost no time in visiting the objects of interest in that ancient city, not forgetting the bear pit, in which there were at that time six of these creatures. In the afternoon we resumed our journey toward Fribourg, and very soon overtook a newly married couple. As they were traveling on horseback like ourselves, and were following the same route for a certain distance, we all agreed to keep together. While passing along a shady part of the road the bride's dress became so firmly entangled in the branches of an apple tree that, failing