184 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



"Account of Indigenous Vegetables," mentions Lobelia 

 under the name emetic weed. Following this, Schopf 

 (582), 1787, incorrectly ascribed to it astringent prop- 

 erties, stating that it was used in ophthalmia, evidently 

 confusing the properties of Lobelia inflata with those of 

 its relative, Lobelia syphilitica. The Indians of North 

 America employed lobelia when necessity required, as a 

 substitute for tobacco. The writer of this historical 

 study observed a very interesting ceremony among the 

 Moqui Indians on their reservation in which a council 

 (circle) of old men passed the pipe after each address or 

 speech. The material smoked was a broken leaf mix- 

 ture, seemingly a form of lobelia. The statement of 

 Lewis and Clarke (381a) to the effect that the Chippe- 

 was used the root of lobelia, refers evidently to the root 

 oi Lobelia syphilitica, no record concerning the use of 

 Lobelia inflata by the Indians being found in such pub- 

 lications as the Book of the Indians, 1837, by Drake 

 (198). Nor was it named in Indian Medicine, by 

 Browne, (104), (edited by W. W. Beach, 1877; Long's 

 (393) account of the medicine and practice of the In- 

 dians of the West, 1819; nor by Nuttall, (477), who in- 

 formed Dr. Mattson (415) that he had never known 

 the Indians to use Lobelia inflata. Indian Captivities, 

 though prolific as concerns the customs of the Indians, 

 ignores the drug, as is also the case with the American 

 Herbal, by Samuel Stearns, M. D., (612), 1772, though 

 in this reference is made to other species of lobelia. 

 Neither Barton (43) nor Rafinesque (535) mentions 

 Lobelia inflata, from personal experience, as an Indian 

 remedy. Catlin (131a) in his Manners, Customs, and 

 Condition of the North American Indians, omits all men- 

 tion of lobelia. However, Mattson, (415), 1841, in his 



