68 



NAT. ORDER. LDRID^E. 



by seed. Some of (lie more tender species require protection in 

 winter. 



Medical Propcrlks ami Uses. Digitalis is narcotic, sedative, 

 and diuretic — a violent poison, but yet a valuable medicine — and 

 when administered in quantities isapt to produce a sense of tightness, 

 or weight, with dull pain in the liead, vertigo, dimness, or other dis- 

 order of the vision, and of the mental operations ; externally it has 

 been used in sores and scrofulous tumours, with considerable advan- 

 tage. Respecting the internal use of this plant, we are told of its 

 good effects in epilepsy, scrofula, and phthisis, but the incautious man- 

 ner in which it has been employed, renders it a very dangerous rem- 

 edy ; yet while Digitalis was generally known to possess such medi- 

 cinal activity, its diuretic effects, for whicli it is now deservedly re- 

 ceived in the Matei'ia Medica, were wholly overlooked. To this dis- 

 covery. Dr. Withering has an undoubted claim ; and the numerous 

 cases of dropsy related by him, and other practitioners of established 

 reputation, afford incontestible evidence of its diuretic powers, and of 

 its practical importance in those diseases. 



Foxglove has been analizcd by Destouches. Foiu* ounces of the 

 dried leaves yielded successively, nine drachms of watery and seventy- 

 eieht grains of alcoholic extract. The first was brown, smooth, and 

 of a consistence fit for making pills. The second had a very deep 

 green color, a virose and disagreeable smell, the consistence of tallow, 

 but more tenacious : did not im-nish ammonia by distillation, and was 

 not acted upon by acids. The ashes contained salts of lime and po- 

 tass. The effects o^ foxglove, vf\\ci\ taken into the stomach, are to 

 diminish the frequency of the pulse, and the irritability of the sys- 

 tem ; and to increase the action of the absorbents, and the discharge 

 by urine. In excessive doses it produces vomiting, dimness of sight, 

 vertitfo, delirium, hiccough, convulsions, collaps, and death. For 

 tliese symptoms, the best remedies are emetics of Lobelia infata, 

 cordials, and stimulants. Internally Digitalis has been recommend- 



