Carduus marianus

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Blessed Thistle.)

Description.— Root perpendicular, strong, simple, with few fibres. Stalk from three to six feet high, upright, stem round, ribbed, arachnoidwooley, branching half way up. Leaves longish, heart-shaped at the base, lanceolate sheathing; the very large radical leaves spreading in a circle, narrowing almost to a footstalk, pinnatifid, tipped with spines, the upper ones only serrate, the lower more or less folded or recurved; all naked, smooth, almost shining, green, marked with broad white stripes along the veins. Flowers reddish-purple or white. It grows in waste places in Southern Europe; found wild in middle Europe; common in England; scarce in Scotland ; seldom, if ever, seen in America, except when cultivated in gardens. It is an annual, blooms from June to September.

Pharmacology— The root is hitter, the young leaves sour, the farinaceous seeds tasteless without the hull, bitterish with it, astringent. The root and hull of the seeds contain the medicinal principle.

Officinal Preparation— (1) Tincture of equal parts of the root and seed with the hull on. (2) Tincture of the hull ; dilutions.

[Rademacher's tincture, with which most of the cures reported were made, was prepared as follows: To five pounds of the un bruised seeds add five pounds of highly rectified alcohol and five pounds of water; digest (macerate) with frequent agitation for a week; press and filter. (Hale.)]

Analogues. — Bryonia, Chelidonium, Chionanthus, Nux vomica, Podo phyllum, Leptandra, Benzoic acid, etc.

Mind.

Depressed, sad, hypochondriacal.

Head.

• Dull, heavy in the forehead over the eyes and in the temples

• Vertigo, with want of clearness of thought.

Gastric.

Bitter taste, and want of appetite.

Great nausea, pyrosis, eructations, and distension of bowels. Violent nausea, painful retching, and vomiting of sour green fluid.

Tongue coated white in the middle.

Stomach.

Feeling of malaise in the epigastric region Empty eructations after food taken against his inclination. Pains in the stomach, continuing for two hours, preceded by vomiting.

° Morning vomiting in a pregnant woman; food remains undigested all day.

Liver.

• Swelling and painfulness of the liver.

0 Tenderness and hardness of the right hypochondria, especially the left hepatic lobe; pressure there caused oppressed breathing and cough; stools brown; urine yellow; respiration asthmatic; expectoration thick and tough, with violent cough.

0 Pain in the liver, with oedema of the feet, scanty bright yellow urine, and asthma. ° Jaundice (many cases).

0 Gallstones, with jaundice, pain in stomach, vomiting of bile.

etc. (Two cases cured by \ ^ tincture in a pint of water; a teaspoonful every two hours. {Dr. Liedbech.)

0 An epidemic of influenza with hepatic symptoms, viz: peculiar brown, gray, dirty complexion of patient, sometimes real jaundiced tint; sensitiveness of left hepatic lobes to pressure; bright, pale yellow, seldom dark green stool; dark brown urine; oppression of the chest; stitches in the side; debility; fever; frontal headache. Nux, Chelidonium, Pulsatilla did no good; only Carduus promptly cured. {Dr. Meil.)

° Painful tenderness and swelling of the gall bladder.

° Hepatic affections, with haemoptysis, asthma and cough.

0 Portal congestion and obstruction and its consequences.

0 Hypertrophy of left hepatic lobes, with tenderness of the cervical and dorsal vertebrae.

Abdomen.

Feeling of fullness in the hypochondria, obliging him to

draw a long breath. Inflation of the abdomen, especially on the right side. Sensibility of the hepatic region to pressure. Painful sensation of an undefined character in the abdomen,

producing deep breathing, increased by violent movement. Cutting colic in bowels here and there. Stitches in the abdomen, as well as in the chest. ° Pain in the whole abdomen near the coecum; cramps; urine

normal; complexion smutty, yellowish; sleeplessness;

great emaciation; hectic fever.

Stool.

Stool tardy, knotted, hard, brown, (primary.) Stool soft, yellowish, thin, loamy, chocolate colored, pappy, and without bilious tinge, (secondary.) , Urine.

Urine at first normal, then as the bile disappears from the stools, it appears in the urine.

Golden yellow urine, diminished in amount, depositing a sediment; finally scanty and brown. ■

Female Sexual Organs.

"Affections of the climacteric period; megrim, metrorrhagia,

leucorrhoea, and asthma, with consensual disorder of the liver. (jReil.)

Larynx, and Chest.

0 Painful cough at night, obliging him to set up in bed.

° Expectoration of pure blood, or blood and mucus, generally

connected with liver troubles. ° Expectoration of tough, clear mucus.

0 Influenzas, which appear to cause severe derangements of the

liver, even to jaundice. 0 Cough of consumptives, and asthmatics. * Stitches in the side — It relieves, but does not appear to

remove the fever and oppression as well as Aconite. ° Pleurisy, in the first stage or chronic pleuritic pain. 0 Asthmatic symptoms, connected with hepatic disorders.

Fever.

Heat followed by sweat, with full pulse and quotidian aggravations.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This medicine, with an odd contradiction of terms, I should call the oldest of the new remedies. I found a pathogenesis of it in one of the early numbers of the “ British Journal of Homoeopathy,” and if one-half its alleged powers are possessed by it, we should test its value thoroughly.

Its sphere of action seems to begin and end in the liver and portal system, and, so far as we can judge, from our present knowledge of its effects, all symptoms are the result, direct or indirect, of such action.

It is a close analogue of Bryonia, Chelidonium, Nux vomica, Podophyllum, Benzoic acid, Chionanthus, and Ammonium muriaticum.

It causes hypochondriacal depression of mind, vertigo, dull heavy pain in the forehead, over the eyes and in the temples, confusion of thought, bitter taste, nausea, pyrosis, eructations, distension, retching, vomiting of sour, green fluid, and many other unmistak-

• Gauze. — Mix paraffin sixteen parts, resin four parts, and Carbolic acid one part. Dip cheap muslin gauze in the mass and wring or press out while hot.

able “ bilious” symptoms. Dr. Leidbeck asserts that no remedy more surely removes such symptoms. The same author has collected a number of clinical cases illustrating its powers, namely :

Morning vomiting of pregnant women ; the food remains undigested all day.

Swelling and painfulness of the liver.

Jaundice (many cases). It is a very popular and successful remedy in domestic practice in Europe.

“ Tenderness and hardness of the right hypochondria, especially in the left hepatic lobe; pressure there caused oppressed breathing and cough ; stools brown, urine yellow, respiration asthmatic, expectoration thick and tough.” These symptoms indicate enlargement of the liver, with sympathetic bronchial irritation, a condition in which Chelidonium and Muriate of ammonia are both now used very successfully.

It is capable of curing a more serious condition of the liver, for a case is reported of

“ Pain in the liver, with oedema of the feet ; scanty, bright urine, and asthma.” It may prove useful in dropsy from hepatic disease.

Like Chelidonium, it has a great popularity in Europe for the cure of

“ Gallstones, with jaundice, pain in the stomach, vomiting of bile, etc. Dr. L. cured two cases with half an ounce of the tincture in a pint of water, a tablespoonful every two hours. He does not say whether the calculi were expelled or dissolved, but the patients got well, and that was quite as satisfactory.”

A case is also reported of “ painful tenderness and swelling of the gall-bladder,’'’ probably from obstruction of the ductus choledoch us communis, and which was promptly removed by the Card u us.

Among other clinical cases he mentioned

“ Hepatic affections with haemoptysis and croup.

“ Portal congestion and obstruction, with its consequences.

° “ Hypertrophy of the left hepatic lobe, with tenderness of the cervical and dorsal vertebrae.

° “ Pain in the whole abdomen, near the caecum, cramps, urine normal, complexion smutty, yellowish ; sleeplessness, great emaciation, and hectic fever.” An affection of the liver, primarily.

It causes tardy, knotted, and hard brown stool, followed by “stool soft, yellowish, thin, loamy, chocolate-colored, pappy, or without bilious tinge.”

The urine at first is normal, but as the bile disappears in the stools, it appears in the urine, which becomes scanty, yellow, and finally brown.

This gives a complete picture of ordinary cases of jaundice.

Dr. Reil recommends it highly for “affections of th e climacteric period in women, viz., megrim, metrorrhagia, leucorrhoea, asthma, with consensual disorder of the liver.” This is similar to the action of Aloes, which is so useful at the change of life, when the liver is the suffering organ.

Dr. Reil narrates his experience with Carduus in an epidemic of influenza with hepatic symptoms , namely, a peculiar brown, dirty-gray complexion of the patient, sometimes a real jaundiced tint; sensitiveness of the left hepatic lobes to pressure; bright, pale-yellow, seldom dark-green stools ; dark-brown urine, oppression of the chest, stitches in the side, debility, fever, frontal headache. Nux, Chelid., and Puls, did no good ; only Carduus promptly cured.

Here in Chicago, during the months of March and April, we have similar epidemics. In several such epidemics I have found the Carduus indispensable for removing the hepatic difficulties.

It is one of the few remedies which is capable of controlling serious pulmonary symptoms resulting from disordered liver. It has cured “painful cough at night, obliging him to sit up in bed;” “ expectoration of pure blood , or blood and mucus, generally connected with liver troubles ;” “ is palliative in the cough of consumptives and asthmatics.”

It has an extensive popular reputation in Europe for “ stitches in the side,” generally the right, and nearly always connected with so-called bilious conditions. You will observe in your practice that severe stiches in the sides and chest often precede a “ bilious attack.” These “ stitches ” are said by Dr. Inman to be generally sympathetic, and are in the muscles oftener than in the liver.

In pleurisy it has some reputation, but it is not probable that Carduus is indicated in idiopathic pleurisy, but rather in pleurodynia (thoracic myalgia).

All the observers of the action of Carduus make this remark : “ It relieves, but does not appear to remove the fever and oppression (in pleurisy) as well as Aconite;” which confirms the opinion I have just expressed.