CARDAMINE PRATENSIS, 
Sensible Qualities. This plant has the same sensible 
qnalities as water-cress ; every part of the plant is inodorous ; its 
taste is slightly bitter and pungent, but it has not been chemically 
examined. A decoction of the flower is bitter. 
Medical Properties and Uses. Tiie officinal part (the 
flowers,) was first brought into notice as an anti-spasmodic, on the 
authority of Sir George Baker, who read a paper in the year 1767, 
at the London College, recommending these flowers as a remedy in 
convulsive disorders.* In this account Sir George relates five cases 
wherein the flowers were successfully used, viz. two of chorea sancti 
Viti, one of spasmodic asthma, one of hemiplegia, accompanied with 
convulsions on the palsied side, and a case of remarkable spasmodic 
afi'ections of the lower limbs ; the two first were cured in less than 
a month , the two second were also happily restored, but in the last 
case the patient had only experienced aome relief from the flowers, 
when she was seized with a fever which proved fatal. In the Manuel 
de M^decine Pratique, &c. a case of incubus is related by Dr. 
Odier, of Geneva, in which the flowers of cardamine proved effica- 
cious after several other anti-spasmodic medicines had failed. We 
are told by Greeding, who exhibited it in large doses, that he ex- 
perienced but one instance of its good eff'ects, out of a great number 
of cases. f At present they are seldom used. They are said to be 
slightly diuretic and diaphoretic, but have otherwise little sensible 
operation. The leaves were formerly considered antiscorbutic. The 
dose of the flowers when dried and powdered, is from half a 
drachm to two drachms, given from two to four times in the twenty- 
four hours. 
Ofl^. The Flowers and Leaves. 
* Medical Transactions, vol. i, p. 442 ; bat their efHcacy in spasmodic diseases had 
been previously noticed by Dale, Pharmacol, p. 204. 
t Ludwig. Advers. Medico-pract. vol. iii. part iii. page 564. 
