LOBELIA 185 



American Vegetable Practice, states that "there is abun- 

 dant traditionary evidence that lobelia was used by the 

 Penobscot Indians long before the time of Dr. Samuel 

 Thomson, its reputed discoverer, but with the excep- 

 tion of that tribe, I have not been able to discover by 

 any researches I have made that the American aborig- 

 ines had any knowledge of its properties or virtues." 

 Samuel Thomson, (638) , whose name is so closely linked 

 with that of lobelia as never to be dissociated therefrom, 

 says, "It has never occurred to me that it was of any 

 value in medicine until this time (1793)," and also, "In 

 the fall of 1807, I introduced lobelia, tinctured in spirit 

 as a remedy in asthma." Mattson, however, 1841, in- 

 sists that its use by the people of New England was 

 long before Thomson's time, reciting that "Mr. Phillip 

 Owen, now eighty years old, relates that when a boy 

 he was sent into the field by his mother to collect some 

 lobelia for a child sick with quinsy, and that the herb, 

 administered in the usual manner, afforded speedy and 

 entire relief." The publication in which this occurs, 

 dated 1841, shows that lobelia was a domestic remedy 

 in 1770. Other evidence, (see Drugs and Medicines of 

 North America, pp. 83-89), (389), indicates conclusively 

 that lobelia was a domestic remedy with the settlers of 

 North America before the day of the noted empiricist, 

 Samuel Thomson, who, however, gave to it the con- 

 spicuity it has enjoyed for over a hundred years. The 

 writer of this historical record is of the opinion that lo- 

 belia will yet be shown to be one of the most valuable 

 of all the vegetable remedies native to America. Very 

 much does its professional record remind of cinchona. 

 In 1885 a historical and illustrated study of lobelia 

 was made by J. U. and C. G. Lloyd in the publication 



