Withering, William (1741-1799)

Letter from William Withering to Mr Robinson, bookseller of Paternoster Row, London, asking him to settle the balance of his account (£609.2.9), and re future supplies of other scientific books.

26/03/179[8]

1 letter

Aquisition details not recorded.

Botanist and physician, credited with the introduction of digitalis into the practice of medicine. In 1785 he published his landmark monograph on the treatment of dropsy, a pulmonary and systemic edema which we would recognize today as congestive heart failure. Presented with a recipe of various herbs used as a folk medicine, he recognized the purple foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, as the important ingredient, and he spent the next ten years evaluating its therapeutic value.