Dr. Drury of Marblehead, and the Rev. Dr. Cutler, have brought the 
Indian tobacco into notice, for the cure and relief of asthma.* —In- 
tobe in great distress, and said he was dying. The prisoner then asked him how far 
the medicine had got down. The deceased, laying his hand on his breast, answered 
here: on which the prisoner observed that the medicine would soon get down, and un- 
screw his navel : meaning, as was supposed by the hearers, that it would operate as a 
cathartic. Between-nine and ten o’clock in the evening, the deceased lost his reason, 
and was seized with convulsion fits; two men being required to. hold. him in bed. 
After he was thus seized with convulsions, the prisoner got down his throat oné or two 
doses more of his emetic powders; and remarked to. ‘the father of the deceased, 
that his son had got the Ayps like the devil, but that his medicines would fetch him 
down; meaning, asthe witness understood, that it would compose him. The next 
morning the regular physicians of the town were sent for, but the patient was so com. 
pletely exhausted, that no relief could be given. The convulsions and the loss of reason 
continued, with some intervals, until Tuesday evening, when the deceased expired. 
From the evidence it appeared that the coffee administered was a decoction of 
marsh-rosemary, mixed with the bark of bayberry bush, which was not supposed to 
have injured the deceased. But the powder which the prisoner said he chiefly relied 
upon in Sach one and: which was the emetic so often administered by him to the 
pulver zed plant, trivially called Indian tobacco. A Dr. French, of 
it this plant, with this name, was well known in his part of the 
us, for its emetic qualities ; and that ‘it’ was gathered 
red by some families, to be used ‘as an emetic, for which the roots, as well as 
* For a detailed scout ef their cases the reader is referred to Thatcher's 
Dispensatory. : ? Sie or Lak o ¥ 
ss, Were administered 5 and ‘that. four grains of the powder were a 
powerful puke. ‘Buta more ‘minute description of this plant was given by the Rev. | 
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