WILLIAM WITHERING

William Withering and the foxglove

constantly threatening him with death. The irony is that it is precisely that control over nature through scientific knowledge which he wanted to achieve so desperately in order to be able to lead a secured and civilised life, which is now threatening mankind with the very destruction with which it once felt threatened by nature. Here we find an identification being made between the modern medi...

Digitalis and William Withering, the clinical investigator.

W ILLIAM WITHERING began to use digitalis for dropsical cases during 1775. The first recorded use of digitalis was on December 8 of that year when he administered a "decoction of fol. digital." to a man about 50 years of age who complained "of an asthma." As a result of the therapy, the patient "made a large quantity of water," " His breath gradually drew easier, his belly subsided, and in abou...

William Withering and digitalis, 1785 to 1985.

William Withering (1741-1799) and Edgbaston Hall.

The foxglove, "The old woman from Shropshire" and William Withering.

Though he received his medical education in Edinburgh, William Withering was born and bred, and conducted his practice, in the Midlands of England, where he collaborated closely with medical and nonmedical colleagues who were pioneers of intellectual thought during the industrial revolution. Because of his profound botanical knowledge, he was able to identify Digitalis purpurea as the essential...