DIGITALIS PURPUREA. 
33 
substance, dissolved in two drachms of warm water, being injected 
into the veins of a cat the animal expired at the expiration of 
fifteen minutes. For more particulars on this interesting subject, wc 
refer our readers to a paper on digitahne, (vide Lancet, vol. ii. 
p. 536.) 
Action of Fox-glove on the Animal Economy. Since 
the time of Fuchsius, many authors* have noted the powerful effects 
produced by fox-glove on the animal frame, and most of them have 
considered it as possessing very deleterious properties : by modern 
writers on toxicology it is ranked among the narcotic poisons. 
Fox-glove in substance, and its various preparations, when adminis- 
tered in large doses, or in small doses frequently repeated, produces 
violent and distressing sickness and purging ; followed by vertigo, 
dimness of sight, delirium, syncope and death. The effects of 
fox-glove on the arterial system is generally to diminish the velocity 
of the circulation in a remarkable degree, although it has sometimes 
the opposite effect, . greatly increasing the frequency of the pulse 
and heat of the body. Orfila, in his general system of toxicology, 
relates many experiments made upon dogs, and draws the follow- 
ing conclusions from them : 1st, that the powder of fox-glove, its 
watery and resinous extracts, and its tincture, ought to be regarded 
as energetic poisons in a certain dose ; 2nd, that all these prepara- 
tions begin by acting as emetics ; 3rd, that the action is much less 
when introduced into the stomach, and vomiting prevented, thaa 
when injected into the jugular vein, or applied to the cellular sub- 
stance ; 4th, that the resinous extract appears to act especially on 
the heart, or blood — since this fluid is constantly found coagulated, 
immediately after death, whenever this extract has been applied to 
the cellular texture, or introduced into the stomach ; 5th, that the 
fox-glove acts upon the human species as upon dogs. 
Treatment. When deleterious symptoms arise from an over- 
dose of fox-glove, (or the plant has been eaten by mistake) the 
usual remedies required where narcotic poisons have been taken, 
should be immediately administered, and for which we refer our 
readers to our article Lactuca. 
Medical Properties and Uses. Digitalis, when administered 
with due caution, is one of the most valuable of our indigenous plants; 
when taken into the stomach, its eflFects are generally to diminish 
the irritability of the system, to retard the velocity of the pulse, 
and increase the action of the aborbents and urinary discharge. 
* Boeihaave, Haller, Parkinson, Murray, Gerarde, &c. &e. 
