Volume 1

An account of the foxglove, and some of its medical uses: with practical remarks on dropsy, and other diseases / By William Withering.

  • Withering, William, 1741-1799.
Date:
1785
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the foxglove, and some of its medical uses: with practical remarks on dropsy, and other diseases / By William Withering. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/246 (page 20)
    In my notes I find the following memorandum— ss February 20th, 1779, gave an account of Doctor ‘* Withering’s practice, with the precautions ne- ‘« ceffary to its fuccefs, to the Medical Society at «¢ Edinburgh.”—In the courfe of that year, the Di- gitalis was prefcribed in the Edinburgh Infirmary, by Dr. Hope, and in the following year, whilft I was Clerk to Dr. Home, as Clinical Profeffor, I had a favourable opportunity of obferving its fenfible ef- fects. In one cafe in which it was given properly at firft, the urine began to flow freely on the fecond day. On the third, the fwellings began to fubfide. ‘The dofe was then increafed more than quadruple in the twenty-four hours. On the fifth day ficknefs came on, and much purging, but the urine ftill increafed though the pulfe funk to 50. On the 7th day, a quadruple dofe of the infufion was ordered to be taken every third hour, fo as to bring on naufea again. — The pulfe fell to forty-four, and at length to thirty- five ina minute. ‘The patient gradually funk and died: on the fixteenth day ; but previous to her death, for two or three days, her pulfe rofe to near one hundred.—It is needlefs to obferve to you, how widely the treatment of this cafe differed from the method which you have found fo fuccefsful. OF