severe agricultural labor, and he grew up ignorant of everything that related to science, and unacquainted with the world, except the little that had passed under his immediate notice. It seems that an old lady, who lived in the neighborhood of his father, often officiated in the family as doctress. He watched her as she prepared doses from roots and herbs, and this awakened his curiosity and led him, when a small boy, to take particular notice of the wild plants which he found in the fields. On one occasion he chewed so much lobelia as to become unmistakably acquainted with its emetic power. This made a permanent impression upon his mind, and in after years he claimed to be the first discoverer of the medicinal powers of that plant, to which he gave the name of Emetic Herb. He was not, however, the first discoverer of its efficacy, as it had been known to medical botanists by the name of Lobelia Inflata long before his time, and is said to have been used by the native Indians, which gave it the name of Indian Tobacco. Thomson's first acquaintance with lobelia was made when he was only four or five
