LOBELIACE^E. 



419 



It was known to the aborigines, and employed by them both in sickness and in 

 their preparations for their great cere- 

 monies. The first writer that noticed . 

 it was Schoepf, who merely says that 

 the root is astringent, and used in oph- 

 thalmia. The next accounts of it are 

 from Dr. Cutler and Dr. B. S. Barton ; 

 but the celebrated Samuel Thompson 

 claims, in his Guide to Health, to have 

 discovered its properties as early as 

 1790, since which it has been experi- 

 mented upon by a number of physi- 

 cians, and is admitted as officinal. The 

 chemical constitution of Lobelia has 

 been several times examined ; Dr. Col- 

 houn was the first to announce the 

 presence of a peculiar principle in it 

 (Jour. Phil. Coll. Pharm., v. 300). 

 It was also experimented upon by- Dr. 

 Pereira; but the most satisfactory in- 

 vestigation of it has been made by Mr. 

 William Procter ( Amer. Jour. Phar., 

 iii. and vii.) ; he found in it a pecu- 

 liar principle, lobelina^ Lobelic acid, a 

 Fixed oil, Resin, &c. Lobelina is a 

 principle analogous to nicotina ; it is 

 semi-fluid, of a light-yellow colour, 

 and lighter than water, and occurs in 

 very small proportions in the plant ; 

 most plentifully, however, in the seeds. 

 Medical Properties. — These have 

 not been sufficiently tested, and some 

 difference of opinion exists as to them. 

 It appears, however, that in small 

 doses Lobelia acts as a diaphoretic 

 and expectorant, and in larger, as a 

 powerful and even dangerous emetic, 

 whilst in still larger, its effects are 

 those of an active acro-narcotic poison, 

 deny that it has any narcotic effects, and assert that it is a perfectly safe 

 medicine, although Thompson himself was tried, in 1809 for the death of a 

 person to whom he had administered this article. It also displays diuretic 

 and cathartic properties. 



The principal employment of Lobelia, in the hands of regular practitioners, 

 is as an antispasmodic, especially in asthma, the attacks of which it often re- 

 lieves, or even removes, even in doses not sufficient to cause vomiting. It 

 was as a remedy in this complaint that it was first brought forward by Dr. 

 Cutler, and has since proved highly beneficial in the hands of others, but, like 

 everything else, sometimes fails. The best mode of administration, is in 

 small doses, gradually increasing them, until headache or nausea ensue, when 

 they are to be omitted entirely. It has also been given in croup, hooping- 

 cough, &c, but with no marked success. As an emetic, except for extreme 

 cases, it is too unpleasant and dangerous. When given as an enema, it 

 causes the same symptoms as are produced by a similar use of tobacco, and 



L. inflata. 



TheThompsonians, on the contrary, 



