The leaves and tops of this plant are employed best in the form of tincture. It is a powerful sedative medicine; capable, like tobacco, in large doses, of producing fatal prostration. Its most important use is for asthma. It is often very relieving in attacks of that affection. It may be safely given (watching its effects, and

THE FAM1LY DOCTOR 51 stopping it at once if vomiting or great faintness result) in half-teaspoonful doses, every half hour or hour, until three or four doses, if necessary, have been given. Another way is to give twenty drops of tincture of lobelia, with twenty drops of syrup of ipecac, every twenty minutes, for three or four doses.