DIGITALIS PURPUREA. 243 
History.—Pereira (Elements of Mat. Med., vol. uu. p. 836) 
states that the term Foxen-zlore occurs in a MS. (Glossarium 
Afric’), probably written before the Norman Conquest (A. D. 
1066), and in a MS. Saxon translation of L. Apulius, both of which 
are among the Cottonian Manuscripts in the British Museum. 
The first authentic notice, however, is in Fuchsius (Hist. Stirp., 
1542), who gave this plant the name of Digitalis, from the 
German finger-hut, a finger-stall, from the corolla resembling 
the finger of a glove. It is singular that there is no record of 
this powerful medicinal drug in the writings of the ancient 
physicians, although by some it is supposed to be the Egnuegoy 
of Dioscorides, and by others the Bagyzgs of the same writer. 
The Digitalis purpurea, however, is not indigenous in Greece 
or Asia Minor. According to Sibthorp, the EaasBogos Acuxos of 
Dioscorides is the Digitalis ferruginea, a very beautiful species of 
this order. Gerarde (Hist. of Plants, p. 647) says that Foxgloves 
some call in Greek QguaAds, and make it Verbasci speciem, or a 
kind of Mullein; and as to its virtues, states that “ Foxglove, 
boiled in water or wine, and drunken, doth cut and consume the 
thicke toughnesse of grosse and slimie flegme, and ranke humours, 
It openeth also the stopping of the liver, spleene and milt, 
and of other inward parts; the same taken in like maner, or 
boiled with honied water or sugar, doth scoure and clense the 
brest, ripeneth and bringeth forth tough and clammie flegme.” 
As a medicine, it has been used for a variety of diseases 
under the allopathic school. Formerly it was externally 
applied by fomentations and ointments; and so highly was it 
prized by the Italians, that they have the adage, “ Aralda tutte 
le piaghe salda,” Foxglove cures all wounds. It has been 
employed to reduce the frequency and force of the heart’s 
action, to promote the action of the absorbents as a diuretic, and 
also for its specific influence over the cerebro-spinal system. 
In fevers ( Withering, Sachs, Maclean, Beddoes, Schonlein, etc.) 
In inflammations, on account of its power of reducing the fre- 
quency of the pulse (King, Clutterbuck, Reil, Jorg, etc.) In 
