16 
NAT. ORDER. LOBELIACEiE. 
a milky juice exudes, which is of a most penetrating diffusable 
nature, and if apphed to the eyeHd, produces a powerful effect upon 
the eye, from which circumstance it is sometimes called eyebright. 
This plant being biennial, throws out the first year only a few radi- 
cal roundish leaves laying close to the ground, the next year it pro- 
duces the stem, branches, and seeds. The leaves and roots of the 
first year are as powerful as the mature plant, excepting the seeds 
which are the strongest. The whole plant is acrid and nauseous, 
producing salivation ; whence, we suppose originated the mistaken 
supposition that it causes the slavers in horses and cattle. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The following is in part taken 
from Howard's Materia Medica, wherein the symptoms, and its 
effects are more accurately detailed than in any other medical work, 
and to which we can bear testimony from experience, having ad- 
ministered it in some hundreds of cases and attended on its opera- 
tion, and have never experienced any bad effects from its use. 
That it is a valuable remedy for some diseases, must be admitted ; 
but like many other powerful medicines, in the hands of those who 
are unskilled in its use, it is liable to be abused, when its effects are 
alarming, and dangerous, and even fatal consequences are some- 
times the result. Howard says, "the lobelia inflata is the most val- 
uable emetic known ; its full merits being scarcely appreciated, 
even by those who are in the habit of making frequent use of it. 
It also acts as a sudorific, diuretic, expectorant, and diffusable stimu- 
lant ; and is said by some physicians to possess powerful narcotic 
properties ; as an antispasmodic, and for the relief and cure of 
asthma, its equal, in our opinion, has not yet come to the knowledge 
of the world. As a stimulant it extends its effects to every part of 
the system, removing obstructions, and restoring a healthy action, 
wherever the one exists and the other is needed. Its action or 
effects may often be sensibly felt or known by a pricking sensation 
over the system, particularly in the fingers and toes. 
A diversity of symptoms attend the operation of lobelia 
