An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medicinal Uses: With Practical Remarks on Dropsy and other Diseases (facsimile)

1968

Hist. Coll. QV153 W823

London: Broomleigh Press

In 1542, the German physician and botanist, Leonard Fuchs (1501-66), gave the plant foxglove the name digitalis. He thought it looked like a Fingerhut, or thimble, so he latinized it to digitalis. This perennial is often used to control heart rates. Withering wrote: ‘The leaves – If well dried they readily rub down to a beautiful green powder . . . I give to adults, from one to three grains of this powder twice a day.’