PHARMACOPCEIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS.

when neeessity required, as a Substitute for tobacco. The Statementof Lewis and Clarke (381a), to the effect that the Chippewa Indiansused the root of lobelia, refers evidently to the root of Lobelia syphi-litica, no record concerning the use of Lobelia inflata by the Indiansbeing found in such publications as the Book of the Indians, 1837, byDrake (198). It was not named in Indian Medicine, by Browne (104),(edited by W. W. Beach, 1877) ; Long's (393) account of the medi-anes and practice of the Indians of the West, 1819; Nuttall (477),who informed Dr. Mattson (415) that he had never known the In-dians to use Lobelia inflata; Indian Captivities, though prolific as con-cerns the customs of the Indians; or the American Herbai, by SamuelStearns, M. D. (612), 1772, which ignores Lobelia inflata, though re-ferring to other species of lobelia. Neither Barton (43) nor Rafi-nesque (535) mention Lobelia inflata, from personal experience, asan Indian remedy. Catlin (131a) in his Manners, Customs, andCondition of the North American Indians, omits the drug. However,Mattson (415), 1841, in his American Vegetable Practice, states that"there is abundant traditionary evidence that lobelia was used by thePenobscot Indians, long before the time of Dr. Samuel Thomson, itsreputed discoverer, but with the exception of that tribe, I have notbeen able to discover by any researches I have made that the Americanaborigines had any knowledge of its properties or virtues." SamuelThomson (638), whose name is so closely linked with that of lobeliaas never to be dissociated therefrom, says, "It has never occurred tome that it was of any value in medicine nntil this time (1793)," andalso, "In the fall of 1807, I introduced lobelia, tinctured in spirit, asa remedy in asthma." Mattson (415), however, 1841, insists thatits use by the people of New England was long before Thomson'stime, reciting that "Mr. Phillip Owen, now eighty years old, relatesthat when a boy, he was sent into the field by his mother to collectsome lobelia for a child, sick with quinsy, and that the herb, admin-istered in the usual manner, afforded speedy and entire relief." Thepublication in which this occurs, dated 1841, shows that lobelia wasa domestic remedy in 1770. Other evidence (see (389) Drugs andMedicines of North America, pp. 83-89) indicates conclusively thatlobelia was a domestic remedy with the settlers of North America be-fore the day of the noted empiricist Samuel Thomson, who, however,gave to it the conspicuity it has enjoyed for over a hundred years. Itis this writer's opinion that lobelia will yet be shown to be one ofthe most valuable of all the remedies native to America, and he be-lieves it would now occupy that position in "Regulär" medication butfor its historical connection with their arch-enemy, Samuel Thomson.

LYCOPODIUM

From the beginning of recorded time the minute spores of Lyco-podium (clavatum, and other species), known also to the early bot-anists as Muscns terrestris, or Muscus clavatus, have been commendedfor their therapeutic virtues. This plant, the common club moss, isfound throughout Central and Northern Europe, Russian Asia, even

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