Natural order. – Compositae. Common name. – St. Mary’s thistle. Habitat. – An annual or biennial plant, native of Southern Europe. Preparation. – Tincture from the ripe seeds.
GENERAL ANALYSIS
Acts upon the liver and portal system, giving rise to jaundice and other bilious disturbances; and for the removal of similar conditions it has been used with marked results.
CHARACTERISTIC SYMPTOMS.
Head. Dullness of the head. Vertigo, with confusion of the mind.
Stomach Bitter taste; loss of appetite. Nausea; eructations; pyrosis, and distension of the bowels.
Abdomen. Swelling and painfulness of the liver; feeling of fullness in hepatic region; jaundice (Chelidonium, Mercurius). Tension in liver when lying on the right side, with pressure.
Stool Constipation alternating with diarrhoea (Antim crud., Nux v., Podo)
Urine Coloring matter of bile in urine (Chelidonium). Urine scanty, brownish, and turbid (Ant. tart., Chelidonium)
Chest. Stitches in region of seventh rib when stooping, afterwards the pain spreads all over front of chest, making movement of arms, walking and stooping almost impossible (Chelidonium).
Compare Chelidonium, Cinchona, Iodium, Mercurius, Podophyllum
THERAPEUTICS
This drug is only useful in hepatic disturbances, especially hyperaemia of the liver, with jaundice, soreness of liver, etc. A valuable remedy in jaundice. Duodenal catarrh. Gallstones. Intermittent fever, with jaundice (one marked cure). Said to be especially useful in miners with chronically disordered livers, and consequent symptoms, especially jaundice; sometimes with asthma. Several cases of varicose veins are reported cured by this drug.
ALLEN CORSON COWPERTHWAITE was born at Cape May, New Jersey, May 3, 1848, son of Joseph C. and Deborah (Godfrey) Cowperthwaite. He attended medical lectures at the University of Iowa in 1867-1868, and was graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1869. He practiced his profession first in Illinois, and then in Nebraska. In 1877 he became Dean and Professor of Materia Medica in the recently organized Homeopathic Department of the State University of Iowa, holding the position till 1892. In 1884 he accepted the chair of Materia Medica, Pharmacology, and Clinical Medicine in the Homeopathic Medical College of the University of Michigan. He removed to Chicago in 1892, and became Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. From 1901 he also served as president of that College. He is the author of various works, notably "Insanity in its Medico-Legal Relations" (1876), "A Textbook of Materia Medica and Therapeutics" (1880), of "Gynecology" (1888), and of "The Practice of Medicine " (1901).