FOX-GLOVE. 183 



most otlicr powerful medicines, only safe in the 

 hands of a regular practitioner of considerable ex- 

 perience, since death itself has sometimes been the 

 result of the indiscreet use of this deleterious plant. 

 Mr. Waller tells us, '' that an increased dose, or 

 too long persisting in a small one, gives rise to the 

 following alarming symptoms — excessive nausea, 

 vomiting, purging, giddiness, and head-aches, with 

 considerable diminution in the frequency of the 

 pulse, sometimes delirium, and at all times great 

 confusion in the functions of the brain." Having 

 noticed these effects, to caution the ifjnorant ao:ainst 



' or? 



ihe use of this dangerous plant, we shall now en- 

 deavour to amuse our medical readers by the first 

 observations which their brethren made on the Di- 

 gitalis purpurea. 



Fuchsius, in his Planiarum Omnium Nomencla- 

 .tur<£j 1541, appears to have been the first writer 

 ■who distinguished this family of plants by the name 

 of Difjitalis^ from the flowers resembling finger- 

 stalls ; and from hence the French called it Gautelee, 

 Gloved, and Gant de Notre Dame, Our Lady's 

 Glove. 



Dr. Turner, who compiled his work on plants 

 during the reign of Queen Mary, and who is the 

 first English writer that mentions this plant, says, 

 " There is an herbc that groweth very much in 

 Englande, and specially in Norfolke^ about y^ cony 



