28 INTRODUCTION 



John Bartram, in 1763, laments that a govern- 

 ment scheme of exploring Louisiana cannot be 

 carried out because the scientists would be ex- 

 posed to " the greatest savage cruelty of the gun, 

 tomahawk, and torture ' by the Indians. He 

 did venture once with a guide, but says, " An 

 Indian met me and pulled off my hat in a great 

 passion and chawed it all around to shew me how 

 he would eat me if I came again." 



There was sometimes, however, bloodless war- 

 fare in the botanical camp in disputation over the 

 alleged medicinal merits of certain plants. Law- 

 rence van de Veer, of New Jersey (about 1796), 

 cures 400 hydrophobia patients with the Scu- 

 tellaria lateriflora. Dr. Lyman Spalding 2 first 

 praises it, then later wishes " to be stricken from 

 the list of believers," while Barton of Philadel- 

 phia condemns him for believing in it at all. Dr. 

 John Tennant, 30 an enthusiastic botanist of Vir- 

 ginia, swears by Seneca snakeroot for pleurisy, 

 against all disputants. The experimenter and 

 botanist, Dr. Samuel Thomson, later uses Lobelia 

 inflata in his " Thomsonian System ' for nearly 

 every evil, and creates endless opposition. But 

 the search for remedies was keen in days when 

 malaria and dysentery ravaged whole towns and 

 paralyzed industry. 



29 Lyman Spalding, M. D., New Hampshire, 1775-1821. 



30 John Tennant, M. D., Virginia, circa 1736. 



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