33S FOXGLOVE. 



Medicinal Properties and Uses. — The action of this 

 powerful plant upon the human frame is both sthnulating and 

 sedative *. In its former character, it excites the action of the 

 digestive organs, the circulation, secretions, and nervous system. 

 In small doses it will induce salivation, a free flow of urine, oc- 

 casionally perspiration, vomiting, purging, and an increase in 

 the frequency of the pvdse. In strong doses it is followed by 

 coldness of the limbs, vertigo, optical illusions, somnolency, 

 delirium, and death. 



Foxglove was first noticed by medical writers in the fifteenth 

 century ; it has been more or less used ever since, but from the 

 above distressing and even fatal symptoms, which sometimes 

 resulted from its exhibition, they were induced almost entirely 

 to lay it aside. Fuchs, as before observed, was the first person 

 who mentions it; it is also slightly alluded to by Gerard, and 

 Parkinson f, a celebrated authority in his day, strenuously re- 

 commended it as an expectorant, and as a very effectual remedy, 

 combined with polypody, against epdepsy J. He also speaks 

 highly of its effects (the herb bruised, or an ointment made of 

 the expressed juice) as an external application to scrofulous 

 swellings. The use of Foxglove with the same view is also 

 mentioned by Hermann §, Bates ||, and Haller^, and we be- 



* Dr. Hallaran considers it rather a narcotic, as observable in its power 

 over mania — tirst producing stimulating and afterwards sedative effects. 



f In this disease he ordered two handfuls of the leaves of Foxglove, and 

 four handfuls of polypody ( Polypodium vulyare) to be boiled in a sufficivent 

 quantity of beer ; the decoction to be drunk twice a week. By these means 

 he asserts that those who had been subject to epilepsy for twenty-six years, 

 were either completely cured or had not a return of the complaint for 

 fifteen months. The operation of this dose, as might be expected, being- 

 very violent, it could only be administered to the more robust. 



" There is no doubt that its combination with the polypody contributes not 

 a little to the anti-epileptic properties of Foxglove, and that in the hands of 

 a skilful physician, that formidable disease might at length find a remedy in 

 some of the more potent of the vegetable productions. The combination 

 above referred to promises fair to do much in the removal of the cause of 

 that mysterious malady ; since polypody has a peculiar effect in dislodging 

 from the intestinal canal that viscid slime which abounds in epileptic pa- 

 tients." J. A. Waller, Brit. Dom. Herb.T^. 163. 



+ Theatre of Plants, p. 654. 



8 Cynosura, torn. ii. p. 467- 



II In Rati Hist. Plant, vol. i. p. 767- 



% Hist. Stirp. Helvet. n. 330. 



