54 MATERIA MEDICA. 



ounces and more, without producing any 

 sensible effect, but it is said that in small 

 doses, from half an ounce to one ounce, 

 white vitriol discovers a tonic quality. 



Should any one be inclined to try the 

 flower of zinc, they may safely begin, I 

 think, with the dose of half an ounce, and 

 gradually increase it, until some effect is 

 observed.^ The diseases to which it is 

 adapted are those arising from debility. 



FOXGLOVE. A poisonous plant which 

 grows plentifully in this country, chiefly in 

 elevated, dry situations. The leaves were 

 formerly employed as an application to ul- 

 cers and scrophulous tumours ; but from its 

 deleterious quality, was seldom used as an 

 internal remedy. Foxglove is now found to 

 possess a remarkable power of diminishing 

 the frequency of the pulse, therefore it will 

 probably be found a valuable medicine in 

 those internal inftarnmations which so fre- 

 quently occur in horses; their most dange- 

 rous fevers depend on this cause, and when 

 the inflammation attacks an important part, 

 such as the lungs or bowels. It generally 

 terminates fatally, unless the most powerful 



