The Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1841-1843, 1843-06-07
COMMUNICATION.
For the Peoples Press.
MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF LOBE

MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF LOBE
LA.
Lobelia is emetic, and like other medicines
OF the same class is occasionally cathartic, and
in small doses diaphoretc and expectorant
1t is also possessed of narcotic properties
The leaves or capsules chewed for short
time, occasion giddiness, headache, general
tremors and ultimately nausea and vomiting
When swallowed in full dose, the medicine
produces speedy and severe vomiting, atten-
ded with continued and distressing nausea,
copious sweating. and great general relaxa-
ton. Its effects in doses too large, or too
frequently repeated are extreme prostratiOn,
great anxiety and distress, and ultimately
death preceded by commissions. Fatal re-
suits have been experienced from its empyr-
zeal use. These are more apt to occur when
the poison, as sometimes happens, is not re-
jected by the stomoch. In its operation up.
on the human system Lobelia. bears close
resemblance 10 Tobacco. As an emetic it
is too powerful, and too distressing as well
as hazardous, in its operation for ordinary
! use besides. it possesses no advantage over
I Ipecac rs an emetic. An extract is obtained
from Lobelia called by chemists Lobelina,
( one grain ofwhicIi DR.. Proctor administered
in solution to healthy cat, which in less
than two minutes produced violent els,
and much prosraton from which the animal
recovered in three hours. Again, one grain
of the substance in an ounce of wafer was
administered into the stomach of the animal
by an elastic tube. Immediate and total pros
tratlOn was the consequence, which IN hall
an hour rendered the animal almost motion
less, the pupils of the eyes were much d.
luteI The animal gradually recovered its
strength, but the effects of the prostration
/ were evident for fifteen hours afterwards.
+ Lobeia is 4 powerful acro-narcotie poison.
: The melancholy consequences resulting from
/ its use, says DIR. Thatcher, as lately admin
/ istered by the adventurous hands of noted
empiric, have justly excited considerable in
terest and furnished alarming examples ofits
I deleterious properties and fatal effects. The
! dose in which lie is said usually TO prescribe
/ it, and frequently with impunity, is tea
/ spoonful of the powdered seeds Or leaves
and often repeated. If the medicine does
not puke or evacuate powerfully, it frequent
/ ly destroys the patient and sometimes i'll five
or six hours"
! Lobelia in the hands of skillful and scien-
| tific men is no doubt capable of producing
sanative aud salutary effects. But we seri-
ously apprehend that the article under
consideration together with other, acrid
stmulants as administered, by the Thom?so-
]
inroads on the health and constitutions of
many of the human race, for in every town
and village their are, one or more empirical
| practitioners, who for the sake of gain,
though unlearned, not having even learned
the first principles of the healing art, and I'M
acquainted with the anatomy of the human
| frame. or what organs may or may not be
| implicated in disease, go forth with neither
| thought nor study, nor preparation of any
note, accept the right furnished by Thomp-
son the great Father of Quacks, and that too
furnished for the paltry sum oftwenty dollars
| then with two or three weeks study they are
ready to palm of their pernicious practice in
all the departments of Medical treatment up
Oh all that are gaping TO swallow down like
sweet pap, the humbugs and Quacks of the
| day. Thus they spring forth ut once from
obscurity and ignorance completely consum-
mate like Pallas when she jumped all arm
ed from the brains of JOve so is the the
.Quack. He is cased all over in native brass,
| from top TO toe,-armed in scale, like the
serpent and like him, he is not wanting in
I fangs.
Other pursuits require patience, time,
/ reading and long practice, before the profess
! sion is allowed to act. The Lawyer studies
| five wears. the Surgeon, the Physician, the
Apothecary, the Painter, the Carpenter the
J Sculptor, as many the Shoemaker the Join
/ er the Smith, each has his long period of
! probation.
But the 2uack has none! He is utterly
! ignorant of simples, the natures of the com
monest herbs are unknown or alike to him.
He is ignorant of the alphabet of Medicine,
and the constitution Of man, he calculates Il
unity of disease therefore unity of treatment
under all circumstance in which the patient
| 10, R,,t LAT he Iry ba nuf
forth, how and why is it, that empyrics in-
crease and flourish in this land of intelligence
when there is in fact. no excuse for igno-
rance. 1t is here, the People, are the foster
mother of this system of things. In case of
sickness they in general, do not exercise so
much judgement in calling in the aid of a
scientific and medical Physician, rs they do
in getting a watch repaired. Who let me
ask, would think of going 10 Blacksmith to
get his time piece set in order, or to Tailor
for the amputation of limb.
i Yet it is a plain discernable fact that a
portion of community will throw the lives
Of beloved wife, husband or child into
the detestable practice of steam and Lo-
bella Doctor. The People should be awake
to this subject, and not suffer themselves
TO be allured from the path of intelligence
and skill, into the deceptive mazes of i'm
pyricism. The People should frown upon
all that savors of Quackerv. let there be no
spicery of this kind in the man you choose
for your physician.
Ladies; 10 you this discrimination is of
the utmost Importance; do not, beseech
you, trust yourselves and offspring in the
hands of impyrics, if you do you may la
ment when loo late, and your husbands
brought 10 premature mourning, and your
selves to an untimeIy grave. The writer
hopes that all who read the above will be
profited, and take warning. and act accor-
DINGHY. CITIZEN
Middebury, VT, May 90, 1s43.