CAR 
the bigness of a bomb, of an oval figure, 
made of ribs of iron, filled with combustible 
matters, as meal powder, salt-petre, sulphur, 
broken glass, shavings of horns, turpentine, 
tallow, &c. The design of it is to be thrown 
out of a mortar to set houses on fire, and do 
other execution. It has two or three aper- 
tures through which the fire is to blaze. 
CARD, among artificers, an instrument 
consisting of a block of wood, beset with 
sharp teeth, serving to arrange the hairs of 
wool, flax, hemp, and the like : there are 
different kinds of them, as hand-cards, 
stock-cards, &c. 
Cariis, among gamesters, little pieces of 
fine thin pasteboard of an oblong figure, of 
several sizes, but most commonly in Eng- 
land three inches and an half long, and two 
and an half broad, on which are painted se- 
veral points and figures. The moulds and 
blocks for making cards are exactly like 
those that were used for the fii-st books : 
they lay a sheet of wet or moist paper on 
the block, which is first slightly done over 
with a sort of ink made with lamp-black di- 
luted in water, and mixed with some starch 
to give it a body. They afterwards rub it 
off with a round list. The court-cards are 
coloured by means of several patterns, 
styled stane-files. These consist of papers 
cut through with a pen-knife, and in the 
apertures they apply severally the various 
colours, as red, black, &c. These patterns 
are painted with oil-colours, that the 
brushes may not wear them out ; and when 
the pattern is laid on the paste-board, they 
slightly pass over it a brush full of colour, 
which, leaving it within the openings, forms 
the face or figure of the card. 
CARDAMINE, in botany, a genus of 
the Tetradynamia Siliquosa class and order. 
Natural order of Siliqnosm or Cruciform 
flowers. Essential character ; silique open- 
ing elastically, the valves revolute ; stigma 
entire; calyx rather gaping. There are 
eighteen species, of which C. bellidifblia 
has a simple root, white, and very long ; 
stem filiform, striated, flexile, an inch long. 
Flowers white, sometimes purplish, with 
claws the length of the calyx ; siliques half 
an inch in length. This plant has no smell. 
Jt flowers in July and August. 
CARDAMOM, in the materia medica, 
is distinguished ipto three kinds, exclusive 
of the amomnm, which is evidently of the 
cardamom kind, They are called by the 
pames of the great caidamom, or grain of 
paradise ; the long or middle cardamom ; 
CAR 
and the lesser common cardamom of the 
shops. 
CARDAN (Hieronymus), in biogra- 
phy, was born at Pavia, Sept. 24, 1501. 
At four years old he was carried to Milan, 
his father being an advocate and physician 
in that city : at the age of twenty he went 
to study in the university of the same city, 
and two years afterward he gave lectures 
on Euclid. In 1524 he went to Padua; 
the same year he was admitted to the de- 
gree of Master of Arts, and the year follow- 
ing to that of Doctor of Physic. In 1539 he 
was admitted a member of the College of 
Physicians at Milan: in 1543 he read pub- 
lic lectures on medicine there, and the 
same at Pavia tlie year following ; but he 
discontinued them because he could not 
get payment 6f his salary, and returned to 
Milan. 
In 1552 he went into Scotland, having 
been sent for by the Archbishop of St. An- 
drews, to cure him of a grievous disorder, 
after trying the physicians of the King of 
France and of the Emperor of Germany, 
without benefit. He began to recover 
from the day that Cardan prescribed for 
him. Our author took his leave of him at 
the end of about six weeks, leaving him 
prescriptions which in two years wrought 
a complete cure. Upon this visit Cardan 
passed through London, and calculated 
King Edward’s nativity, being famous for 
his knowledge in astrology. Returning to 
Milan, after four montlis' absence, he re- 
mained there till the beginning of October, 
1552, and then went to Pavia, from whence 
he was invited to Bologna in 1562. He 
taught in this last city till the year. 1570 ; at 
which time he was thrown into prison ; but 
some months after he was sent home to his 
own house. He quitted Bologna in 1571, 
and went to Rome, where he lived for some 
time without any public employment. He 
was however admitted a member of the 
College of Physicians, and received a pen- 
sion from the Pope till the time of his 
death, which happened at Rome on the 
21st of September, 1575. 
No man of his time seems to have made 
greater progress in philosophy, medicine, 
and other branches of natural science, than 
Cardan : in algebra he was a great adept, 
and made many improvements in the ana- 
lytic art. His dexterity in solving cubic 
equations has given him a lasting name. It 
is affirmed by Scaliger, that Cardan having, 
by his pretended skill in astrology, predict- 
ed the time of his dgath, abstained from all 
