o4 THE NEW ZEALAND FAMILY HERB DOCTOR. 
administered it called it the stomach screw. There is nothing 
hke it for emptying the stomach, but there is no danger with 
it notwithstanding what doctors and their books say. Had it 
been the poison that text-books declare it, we and others would 
have beeninourgraveslongago. Wehavegivenamanoneortwo 
ounces of the powder at one time and yet he lived. How isit 
then that this false rumour has got abroad? This is how: 
Ist. [hompson’s trial. (See page 15). 2nd. Some have rather 
unwisely given itto people in the flickering outof life. They have 
died, andthinking that none but doctors could give a certificate of 
death, the friends of the dead havesent for the doctor, who, when 
he had learned the facts of the case, refused to certify to the 
cause of death. The coronor then held an inquest, ordered very 
likely the same doctor to make a post-mortem examination, 
who found lobelia in the stomach, the unlucky herbalist would 
then be prosecuted, and as it happened last year in England, 
fully acquitted, it being proved by other doctors that lobelia 
was not a poison, nor did the patient die from its effects. Itisa 
mercy for us that doctors sometimes differ. No, Lobelia cannot 
poison a healthy person, for as soon as the stomach has too 
much of it, up it comes; it is like pouring water into a full 
vessel. There is one class of sufferers to whom it has proved 
a blessing, namely asthmatics. Here is the testimony of an 
M.D., (Dr. Butler), who had the misfortune to be an asth- 
matic, his attacks sometimes lasting six or eight weeks. 
During one of these he took a tablespoonful of the acid 
tincture, and in a few minutes his breathing was as iree 
as ever. He took three or four doses more, which he says. 
he felt all over his system. After this he was completely 
cured. We could quote several such testimonies, where 
lobelia had a marvellous effect, but we are sorry to say it 1s 
not always so successful; still it stands first as a remedy in 
spasmodic, and also in humid asthma; it is also a valuable 
relaxant in infantile convulsions. Dr. Whitford of Chicago told 
us of a sample case. He was called to a child in very bad 
convulsions. The doctor who had been attending before him 
had prescribed heroic doses of bromide of potassium, but to D0 
