SCUTELLARIA 313 



Dr. Spalding, accompanied by names, dates, places of 

 residence, and often by certificates from witnesses. But 

 in it all, seemingly, no mention was made of the treat- 

 ment being identical with that of Dr. Van Derveer, 

 from whom it was obtained, and who, as is recorded, 

 did not make any secret of the name of the herb, giving 

 it freely to whoever asked for it. 



Before the death of Lewis the elder, the "Lewis 

 Secret Cure" for hydrophobia became celebrated far 

 and near, and it also became known to some persons 

 that the remedy employed was identical with that of 

 Dr. Van Derveer. 



Scutellaria, about 1809, came into popular as well as 

 newspaper notoriety as a cure for hydrophobia, one of 

 the first notices in print being a letter to Mr. Robert 

 Bowne, a celebrated philanthropist of New York City, 

 published in the Sakm Gazette, Sept. 15, 1809. The 

 writer credits the Lewises with the secret cure, and 

 states that the drug has been proven to be scutellaria, 

 the identification being made as follows: 



"The remedy he made use of is nothing more than a 

 plant that grows in the fresh meadows of our country. 

 The botanic name of it is Scutellaria galericulata. 1 

 This plant Lewis used to gather, dry it and reduce it 

 to a powder, in order to prevent a discovery of what it 

 actually was. It was found out by a person who ob- 

 tained some of it in a powdered state; observing seeds 

 in it, he placed them in his garden, where they came 

 to perfection." 



Following this, Mr. Coleman, editor of the New York 

 Evening Post, published corroborative editorial testi- 

 mony: 



> An error. The plant is S. lateriflora. 



