Carduus marianus, St. Mary's Thistle.

The action of this drug is centered in the liver, and portal system, causing soreness, pain, jaundice. Has specific relation to the vascular system. Abuse of alcoholic beverages, especially beer. Varicose veins and ulcers. Diseases of miners, associated with asthma. Dropsical conditions depending on liver disease, and when due to pelvic congestion and hepatic disease. Disturbs sugar metabolism. Influenza when liver is affected. Debility. Haemorrhages, especially connected with hepatic disease.
Mind.--Despondency; forgetful, apathetic.
Head.--Contractive feeling above eyebrows. Dull heavy, stupid, with foul tongue. Vertigo, with tendency to fall forward. Burning and pressure in eyes. Nose-bleed.
Stomach.--Taste bitter. Aversion to salt meat. Appetite small; tongue furred; nausea; retching; vomiting of green, acid fluid. Stitches in left side of stomach, near spleen (Ceanoth). Gallstone disease with enlarged liver.
Abdomen.--Pain in region of liver. Left lobe very sensitive. Fullness and soreness, with moist skin. Constipation; stools hard, difficult, knotty; alternates with diarrhoea. Stools bright yellow. Swelling of gall bladder with painful tenderness. Hyperaemia of liver, with jaundice. Cirrhosis, with dropsy.
Rectum.--Haemorrhagic piles, prolapse or rectum, burning pain in anus and rectum, hard and knotting, clayey stools. Profuse diarrhoea due to rectal cancer. 10 drops doses (Wapler).
Urine.--Cloudy; golden-colored.
Chest.--Stitching pains in lower right ribs and front; worse, moving, walking, etc. Asthmatic respiration. Pain in chest, going to shoulders, back, loins and abdomen, with urging to urinate.
Skin.--Itching on lying down at night. Varicose ulcers (Clematis vitalba). Eruption on lower part of sternum.
Extremities.--Pain in hip-joint, spreading through buttocks and down thigh; worse from stooping. Difficult rising. Weakness felt in feet, especially after sitting.
Relationship.--Compare: Card benedictus (strong action on eyes, and sensation of contraction in many parts; stomach symptoms similar);
Chelidon; Chionanthes; Merc; Podophyl; Bry; Aloe.
Dose.--Tincture and lower potencies.

Boericke's Materia Medica, 1901, was written by William Boericke. Excerpt: The Tinctures.