Carduus Marianus

Is a so-called liver remedy, and I have seen good results from it in liver troubles, yet I do not know of any special indications for its use. I have known cases of habitual colic from gall stones checked and the further formation of the stones prevented by this remedy. One of them was a very bad case, for which old Dr. Pulte, of Cincinnati, prescribed Carduus. Her daughter inherited the trouble, and I saw her, in consultation with another physician, at one of these terrible attacks of gall stone colic. She could not lie down, but sat in her chair, bent over forward, for forty-eight hours, and during this time she passed two hundred gall stones, very hard and nearly the size and shape of a beech-nut, which were found by washing the fæces. I have a dozen or so now in a little vial in my office. Carduus was also a help to her, but she takes, right along for years at a time, olive oil, thinking that it dissolves the stones or keeps them from forming.

When other remedies fail for pain in the region of the liver, with dizziness, bad-tasting mouth, jaundiced skin and the usual symptoms called “bilious,” if I have no special indications for other remedies, I have given Carduus, and several times with good results. But, as I said before, I can give no special indications for its use. I can do better for