Septalius, Louis

, an Italian physician of celebrity, was born at Milan, in February 1552. He evinced great talents from his early childhood, and at the age of sixteen defended some theses on the subject of natural philosophy with much acuteness. His inclination leading him to the medical profession,* he repaired to Pavia, for the study of it, and obtained the degree of doctor in his twenty-first year, and was even appointed to a chair in this celebrated university two years after. At the end of four more years he resigned his professorship to devote himself entirely to practice at Milan, and while here Philip III. king of Spain, selected him for his historiographer; but neither this, nor many other honours, that were offered to him, could induce him to quit his native city, to which he was ardently attached. The only honour which he accepted was the appointment of chief physician to the state of Milan, which Philip IV. conferred upon him in 1627, as a reward for his virtues and talents. In 1628, during the plague at Milan, Septalius, while attending the infected, was himself seized with the disease, and although he recovered, he had afterwards a paralytic attack, which greatly impaired his health. He died in September 1633, at the age of eighty-one. Septalius was a man of acute powers, and solid judgment, and was reputed extremely successful | in his practice. He was warmly attached to the doctrines of Hippocrates, whose work? he never ceased to study. He was author of various works, among which are <k In Lihrum Hippocratis Coi, de Aeribus, Aquis, et Locis, Commentarii quinquc,“1590;” In Aristotelis Problemata Commentaria Latina,“torn. I. 1602, II. 1607;” Animadversionum et Cautionum Meriicarmn Libri duo, septem aliis additi,“1629; the result of 40 years of practice, and equal to any of its contemporaries of the seventeenth century.” De Margaritis Judicium,“1618;” De Peste et Pestiferis Affectibus Libri V.“1622” Analyticarum et Animasticarum Dissertationum Libri II." 1626, &c. &c.¹