NAT. ORDER. LOBELIACEiE. 
167 
prevailing- opinion throughout the country, that this herb is poisonous 
and dangerous — corrosive-sublimate, mercury, arsenic, digitalis, fox- 
glove, or any other poison is swallowed without any hesitation ; but 
speak of Lobelia, and you frighten your patient almost out of his senses. 
From well authenticated facts, and the testimony of nearly a thousand 
physicians, we are able to prove clearly and satisfactorily, that the 
Lobelia possesses none of those deleterious properties which have 
been ascribed to it. I have myself made use of the seeds and leaves 
of this plant as an emetic, and have universally, on all occasions, found 
it the most desirable of all emetics. I consider it safe in all stages of 
disease, properly administered, and under any circumstances where 
an emetic is desired. It does not possess in the slightest degree any 
poisonous or deleterious properties. I have administered it hundreds 
of cases to the amount of ten times the quantity that. Prof. Bigelow 
says will destroy life, and have never experienced the least indications 
that it is capable of producing- any injury properly given, more than 
our most harmless medicine, and I therefore speak with confidence, 
and recommend it as the most safe emetic which can be administered. 
In cases of hydrophobia, a strong- decoction of the seeds of Lo- 
belia combined with Sceutilaria laterifolia, has been given with mark- 
ed success, and so far as our knowledge extends, it may be consider- 
ed as one of the best remedies in the treatment of that distressing- 
complaint. As an antispasmodic, in cramp, convulsions, locked-jaw, 
&c, no remedy has ever yet come to our knowledge, possessing so 
valuable properties. Dr. T. W. Sweet, of this city, a gentleman of the 
highest respectability, informs me that he has made constant use of the 
Lobelia in his practice, and for mildness and certainty of its operation, 
activity and diffusiveness of its influence, he considers it as the most 
valuable of any emetic known, and ranks it first in that class of medi- 
cines in the Materia Medica : he also informs me of a case now under 
treatment, of a lady about fifty-five years of age, who has received the 
seventh shock of the palsy, attended with locked-jaw : he being im- 
mediately sent for, administered the concentrated tincture in the dose 
