The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1837-10-11
Medical properties of Lobelia.
BENJAMIN Warehouse, M. d., late Pro-


BENJAMIN Warehouse, nj. d., late Pro
fessor in Cambridge University, says;
1--WE would fain know if any man ca
be named in the United States who has en-
riched our Matera Medica with so man
valuable articles as Samuel Thomson
The single article of Lobelia, whose vaiua
bic qualities he was the first TO discover an
bring into use, entities him to the thanks O
his fellow men, Notwithstanding it has beel
denounced rs poison in American Dis
pensatories, in American elementary book
of botany, and even from the bench of th
judiciary, and is still echoed from every ig
norant blockhead claiming the privilege o
of Nj. ID. Yet it is beyond all doubt with
those who have used it, the most ellicaciou
emetic hitherto discovered aud made public
and is as safe as efectual:
Wooster Beach, Md, of New York, says
" Lobeha is very valuable plant, contain.
ing many active medicinal properties. 1t i:
stated that it was first used by the aboriginos
of our country; but we are indebted more
especially to DIR. SAMUEL Thomson for
bringing it into use. THE charge brought
against il by many physiciaas, is totally
false. have used il for many years in va
rious diseases, both ofmen women and chill
dren, in which have never seen single
unpleasant symptom arise from its admins
tratiOn."
DR.. Howard states, in his Materia Medca,
that" Lobelia is the most valuable and cf-
fcicm, cmeic known. As an
antidote To poisons of all kinds, the Lobe
liza stands unriyalled; particularly in the
cure of hydrophoba. Several well atested
cases of cures of this terrible and fatal dis
ease have come to our knowledge, one of
which occurred in the city Of Cincinnati" J."
Doct. Thomas Iiersey, who was prac-
titiouer of the old school for forty years and
for ten years a surgeon in the U. s. Army,
in speaking Of Lobelia, says:
Like Thomson, we have given it to
the young infant, and to the man of years,
aud have ever found it most extraordiu-
nry, elficacious medicine, when given as an
cmctic, or in form of an injection. In
whooping cough, by giving it so as to pro-
ducc vomiting every morning, the cough
will subside in n short time. In obstinate
cases, course of medicine will greatly fnc-
iIitate the cure. Boiling water greatly
impairs, and will soon destroy its emetic
quality. We have given it, and known Of
its having been given in large doses, and
frequently repeated, but never were able to
discover any Of those narcotic and delite-
rious effects, of which those complain who
never gave a dose in their lives. We con
l.. Il, L., l..
mestic hands, that can be used, and are per-
suaded that the most experienced scarcely
know how highly they ought to appreciate
its virtues" 1t has been recommended in
some shape or other, says Ra6ncsque, for
almost every disease; but those for which
it is most efficient, are spasmodic asthma,
bronchial cough, tetanus or lockjaw, and
slrangulatcd hernia. In asthma particu-
lary, it appears to be almost specific.
It has lately been introduced in Europe,
and as "A remedy for this complaint, and
with decided advantage" IL is not natur-
ally ca,hartic, but when drawn in luke
warm water and taken cold and gradually,
1t will sometimes appear to act as n laxative
given this way in Thomsonian injections,
the discharges from the bowels will be
copious In Iockcd-jaw, the tincturc should
be perscverngly administered but large
and repeated in ectinns of hot or cold in
fusion, or Thomson's third preparation will
relax the spasm. The cold infusion opcr-
a!es as certainly as The warm; nervous nf-
fcclions generally, st. Vtus's Dance, fits,
commissions, &c, yield to its medicinal
powers.
The Lnbclia in1atn, in our estimation,
is more deserving Of the reputation of uni
yersal remedy than any other article ever
yet enrolled in the vocabulary of medicine.
As an Alternative in diseased, declining hub-
its, for coughs, pains in the breast, and
functional arrangements of stomach and
bowels, it ranks high with all those persons
who have ever tested its excellence,
1t should be ihterwoveH and associated
with the whole routine ofour remedial pre-
in some way or otEer, in almost
every varied form of disease incident to hu-
man nature"
leave to the common sense of the
people to decide whether the medical strip
lings & their parasites, ofthis place, are more
To Judge of the medical proper
lies of Lobelia than the veteran and high
authorities ! have quoted, to say nothing of
the four or five millions of Thomsonans in
the United States, and the thirty thousand
Thomsonian Practitioners who are all II
greed to person, from continued expert
ence, that Lobelia is no poison. The con-
stupidity of DIR. Bartlett in assert
ing Cayenne to be poison, may show how
much the opinions of the whole coniedera-
ted league are worth, when they Ignorant
ly, or wickedy SANDER Lobelh. The Ed !
inburgh Dspensatory says, that Cayenne
is the purest siimulent known" The Bos-
ton Medical ~ Surgical Journal says, that