FOX-GLOVE. 185 



of tliis plant for the cure of fever; and that its 

 operation was exceedingly violent. 



Parkinson, an apothecary of London, and hcr- 

 barist to King Charles the First, tells us, in 1640, 

 that notwithstanding the Fox-glove was found to 

 possess the properties noticed by Gerard, yet there 

 were but few physicians that used it, so that it was 

 generally neglected. This author adds, " And it 

 hath beene of later experience found also to be ef- 

 fectual! against the falling sicknesse, that divers 

 have been cured thereby ;" and he relates some ex« 

 traordinary instances of this disease being entirely 

 cured by the aid of this plant. To this remark, 

 Waller observes in his New Herbal, " It is singu- 

 lar, that since the plant has been so much in vogue, 

 and employed in such a variety of diseases, no ex- 

 periment should have been made to ascertain its 

 effects in so formidable a disease as epilepsy, which 

 has long been considered the opprobriinn medi- 

 co rum.'' 



The Itahans of the seventeenth century used 

 it familiarly to heal fresh wounds as well as to 

 cleanse old sores, and hence their proverb, Aralda^ 

 fiitle piaghe salda. Aralda (Fox-glove) salveth all 

 sores. 



Dr. Withering, who has the credit of bringing 

 the attention of our medical practitioners to the 

 notice of this plants observes that in dropsical cases 



