166 NAT. ORDER. LOBELIACE.E. 



Bigelovv, in his Materia Medica of this country, has given a very 

 lengthy statement of what he has heard some one say in regard to 

 the poisonous properties of this plant . he remarks, " that not only 

 horses and cattle have heen supposed to be killed by eating it, but a 

 remarkable instance of its deleterious effect on the system, is related 

 in the report of a trial for murder of a notorious empiric in Massa- 

 chusetts, who used this Lobelia to a pernicious extent as a nostrum. 

 This daring and ignorant man is said to have usually prescribed it, 

 and frequently with impunity, in the dose of a common tea-spoonful 

 of the powdered seeds or leaves, and often repeated. If the medicine 

 does not operate as an emetic, or evacuate the bowels powerfully, it 

 frequently destroys life, and sometimes in the short space of four or 

 five hours. The testimony of Dr. Drury, of Marblehead, and the 

 Rev. Dr. Cutler, have brought the Lobelia into notice for the cure 

 and relief of asthma. Induced by their accounts, and the obvious 

 expectorant effects of the plant, I administered it to a domestic in 

 my family, who was distressingly affected with spasmodic asthma. 



This woman was of a slender form, and of a narrow, depressed 

 thorax ; and for years past has been subject to this complaint. 

 During one of her paroxysms, I directed her to take a teaspoon- 

 ful of the brandy tincture every two hours. After taking the 

 second spoonful, she was immediately relieved. In a subsequent 

 attack, the experiment was I'epeated, increasing the dose to a tea- 

 spoonful every hour, and with the same effect ; the patient declaring 

 that she never found such immediate and entire relief from any of 

 the numerous medicines she had previously taken for this complaint. 

 She complained of dizziness, nausea, and some debility, and after 

 taking the second spoonful, told me that she suspected the medicine 

 administered was tobacco." Thus we have the accounts of one who 

 professed to be a teacher in medicine, and who tells us distinctly 

 that, from the accounts given him by others, and the effects of the 

 herb, witnessed by himself, he is fully persuaded that the Lobelia 

 possesses powerful narcotic and deadly poisonous properties, that it 



