95 



LOBELIA FAMILY {Lobeliacece) 



INDIAN TOBACCO {Lobelia inf lata I..) 

 Plate XXXVIII. 



Common Names : The Indian tobacco is frequently called wild tobacco, 

 asthma-weed, gag-root. 



Description: The Indian tobacco is a hairy annual, with an erect 

 branched stem from one to three feet high. The lower leaves are oval, 

 from one to two and a half inches long with toothed margins and short 

 stalks. The upper leaves have no stalks, and gradually diminish into 

 leaf-like bracts. Its numerous pale blue flowers are small, two-lipped, 

 and rather inconspicuous in the axils of the upper leaves. The seed-pods 

 are inflated, nearly round, with ten prominent ribs, and contain numerous 

 brown seeds, oblong and reticulated. The plant is in bloom from July to 

 October. 



Distribution: It is commonly found in fields and thickets from 

 Labrador to Saskatchewan. It is native to Canada. 



Poisonous Properties: The whole plant contains an acrid milky 

 juice, and has an unpleasant burning taste. It is used medicinally. 

 The leaves contain the poisonous narcotic alkaloid lobeline. Lobeline, as 

 well as other constituents found in lobelia, is open to further investigation, 

 but its action is well known. Greenish remarks, ''Lobeline has an action 

 closely allied to that of nicotine; it first excites the nerve-cells and then 

 paralyses them." Millspaugh says, ''Thanks to much reckless prescribing 

 by many so-called botanic physicians, and to murderous intent, as well as 

 to experimentation and careful provings, the action of this drug is pretty 

 thoroughly known. Lobelia in large doses is a decided narcotic poison, 

 producing effects on animals generally, bearing great similitude to some- 

 what smaller doses of tobacco, and lobelina in like manner to nicotiaJ^ 



Symptoms: The prominent symptoms of its action as given by Mills- 

 paugh are: "Great dejection, exhaustion, and mental depression, even to 

 insensibility and loss of consciousness; nausea, and vertigo; contraction 

 of the pupil; profuse clammy salivation; dryness and prickling in the 

 throat; pressure in the oesophagus, with a sensation of vermicular motion, 

 most strongly, however, in the larynx and epigastrium; sensation as of a 

 lump in the throat; incessant and violent nausea, with pain, heat, and 

 oppression of the respiratory tract; vomiting, followed by great prostra- 

 tion; violent and painful cardiac constriction; griping and drawing abdom- 

 inal pains; increased urine, easily decomposing and depositing much uric 

 acid; violent racking paroxysmal cough, with ropy expectoration; small, 

 irregular, slow pulse; general weakness and oppression, more marked in 



