(Jerome), a most eminent Italian poet and physician, was born at Verona in the year 1482. Two singularities are related of him in his infancy: one is, that his lips adhered so closely to each other, when he came into the world, that a surgeon was obliged to divide them with his incision-knife; the other, that his mother was killed with lightning, while he, though in her arms at the very moment, escaped unhurt. Fracastor was of parts so exquisite, and made so wonderful a progress in every thing he undertook, that he became eminently skilled, not only in the belles lettres, but in all arts and sciences. He was a poet, a philosopher, a physician, an astronomer, a mathematician, and what not? He was a man of vast consequence.