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Coleridge writes thus : — 



" The Foxglove tall 

 Sheds its loose purple bells, or in the gust, 

 Or when it bends beneath the upspringing lark 

 Or mountain finch alighting." 



The Foxglove is one of the poisonous plants of Great Britain : it was employed by 

 the old herbalists for various purposes in medicine, most of them wholly without 

 reference to those valuable properties which render it so useful a remedy in the hands 

 of the modern physician. Gerarde recommends it to those " w ho have fallen from 

 high places." Dodoen prescribed it boiled in wine as an expectorant, and for all 

 maladies of the spleen or liver it was highly esteemed. Blauchard tells us that the 

 country people of Somersetshire still administer it in fevers, for which " some confide 

 very much in the flowers," and putting a " great many of them in May butter, they 

 set them in the sun," while " others mingling them with lard, put it underground for 

 forty days, and then apply them as an ointment " in cases of King's evil. Modern 

 chemists inform us that all parts of the plant are poisonous, and exert an action both 

 on the brain and alimentary canal. The leaves appear to produce the most powerful 

 effect, and retain their noxious properties when dried. Dr. Taylor, in his work on 

 Poisons, gives us several instances of poisoning by digitalis, either by intention or 

 mistake. A few grains of the powdered leaves have been known to produce giddiness, 

 languor, dimness of sight, and other nervous symptoms. A drachm has, however, 

 been taken without causing death, but it produced the most violent vomiting. The 

 most common effect of the poison on the system is the depression of the heart's action. 

 In cases of accidental poisoning by Foxglove, the remedies are a free use of emetics 

 and vegetable infusions containing tannin. The active principle of the digitalis is 

 known to chemists as digitalia. The use of the plant in medicine was advocated by 

 Dr. Withering, to whose exertions much of our knowledge of the properties of our 

 native plants is due. In his time it was commonly used as a remedy in regular 

 practice ; but it is a dangerous medicine, and should not be administered incautiously, its 

 action being frequently cumulative, so that, after a number of small doses have been 

 given with apparently little effect, the whole will often act suddenly upon the system, 

 producing the most alarming symptoms, and even death. The uncertainty of the 

 action of many of these vegetable poisons, according to the circumstances of the 

 growth of the plant, the season in which it might have been gathered, &c, are grave 

 objections to their use in medicine. We find, however, that the Digitalis is retained in 

 the British Pharmacopoeia, and that it is prescribed in the form of an infusion made 

 from the dried leaf, from wild indigenous plants gathered when about two-thirds of 

 the flowers are expended. Dr. Withering, with whom the Foxglove was a very 

 favourite remedy, quotes some lines which describe its action : — 



" The Foxglove's leaves with caution given, 

 Another proof of favouring Heaven 



Will happily display ; 

 The rapid pulse it can abate, 

 The hectic flush can moderate, 

 And, blest by Him whose will is fate, 



May give a lengthen'd day." 



A domestic use of the handsome flower of the Digitalis was general throughout North 

 VOL. VI. S 



