160 years ago today - Apr 2, 1862

President Young remarked that lobelia was good in cases of [scarlet] fever, lobelia in small doses was a very good nervine, it was better than nervine to comfort the nervous system. Br. Thomas W. Ellerbeck asked the President about the properties of Calomel, the President said Calomel was good in a few instances he said Calomel might cure some mean person, a person that would not be happy unless they were trying to be miserable, he said that the Thompsonian system was as much better than the old system of doctoring, than the Gospel was better than Sectarianism, and lobelia was better than Calomel. The President further remarked we desire to wash our hands that we may enjoy our food, and our system our stomach & Bowels desire to be kept clean by the use of a syringe that food can be enjoyed and digested. -- Salt Lake City

[Brigham Young Office Journals, in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]