Lobelia Inflata in Angina Pectoris.

As I predicted some months ago the investigation we are making concerning the action of lobelia when used hypodermically, is bringing out a great many valuable facts concerning this remedy which hitherto have not been observed nor even anticipated. A writer in the Medical Summary reports the following remarkable results from the use of the remedy in angina pectoris, as follows :

"Angina pectoris is a most grave and serious condition to endeavor to relieve or overcome. A gentleman, aged sixty years, was brought into my office recently off the street. He sank into the first chair he came across, his head and neck were bathed in profuse perspiration, he had as agonized a facial expression as I ever beheld. His head was thrown back and his left hand clutched his heart. He was unable to speak. I realized that there was heroic work to be done at once. I injected two drams of specific lobelia inflata into his right arm. I noticed slight improvement in symptoms in ten minutes; he removed his hand from his heart and placed it on his knee. I repeated the hypodermic injection of lobelia in one-half hour. giving the same amount. In one hour the patient was decidedly better and left the chair he sat on for one much more comfortable. I gave a third hypodermic of lobelia one hour after the second one was given; at this time he received one dram. He left my office in a carriage after having been with me three hours.

"I injected one-half dram about four o'clock in the afternoon, at the patient's request, he being at the time absolutely free of pain and feeling fine, as he expressed himself. The patient told me the attack, which was the first he ever experienced, was precipitated by most alarming news contained in a letter which he was reading while walking on the street. His recovery was uneventful—says he feels as well as ever today.

"Lobelia inflata given hypodermically does miraculous work in quite a few conditions. It behooves practitioners to make a study of its possibilities."

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 2, 1908, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.