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Page 13
| mend a medicine made up of a "secret mixture" and could do nothing with a plant that was not properly identified. |
| In September of 1886, Dr. Meyer shipped samples of the whole plant to Dr. Lloyd. This was subsequently identified as Echinacea angustifolia by John Uri Lloyd's brother, Curtis Gates Lloyd, who was a trained botanist and mycologist. Due to the exaggerated claims put forth by Dr. Meyer, such as its use as an antidote in 613 cases of rattlesnake bite, John Uri did not display much interest in echinacea. In an attempt to convince Dr. Lloyd of its value, Dr. Meyer offered to come to Cincinnati and, before a committee of physicians, allow himself to be bitten by a rattlesnake of the committee's choosing and then use only echinacea as the antidote. This initial offer was graciously declined. Thinking it was because the Eclectics did not have a rattlesnake at their disposal, Dr. Meyer offered to bring with him "a full-sized rattlesnake possessed of its natural fangs" for the experiment, but again the offer was declined. |
| Dr. King was not so quick to discount the validity of echinacea's use despite the exaggerated claims, and subsequently provided the medical profession with one of the first anecdotal reports of its positive effects. At the time, Dr. King's wife was suffering from ovarian cancer. Treatments he had tried for a number of years provided little comfort. However a tincture of echinacea, possibly the first pure echinacea tincture made, was one of the only remedies that provided her with any meaningful relief in that it reduced the pain associated with the disease, and "allayed a purulent discharge." Though Mrs. King died two years later of breast cancer, her daughter felt that |
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