OCR Text |
Show FOXGLOVE. FOXGLOVE:. 602 603 The dose was gradually raised from fifteen to thirty drops clusion: It seldom succeeds in men of great natural strength, twice a day ; but thirty produced bilious vomiting. More than twenty cannot be taken without considerable nausea, vertigo, or tense fibre, warm skin, florid complexion, or with a tight cordy pulse; on the contrary, the pulse must be feeble or intermit. ting, the countenance pale, the lips livid, the skin cold, the swollen belly soft and fluctuatingg, the anasarcous limbs readily pitting under the pressure of the finger. Underthese circum stances the digitalis seldom fails of producing a cure, but seems peculiarly adapted where there is water in the chest. indistinctness of vision. In all these cases except the first, I found it impossible to avoid great nausea, and to keep the pulse below 80. It would be 50 in the morning, and near 100 in the evening. I suspect that in people of feeble habit, the digitalis will lose its effect on the pulse sooner than in others; and I suppose the above hypothesis applicable to the fact. No other medicine, except an occasional aperient, was pre- This eminent physician prefers the leaves to the other parts of the plant, and directs that the stalks and midribs of the leaves The rest I take to be certainly so; and should be thrown away, and that the remaining part should be carefully dried either in the sun or beforethe fire; and he says, that if they be well dried, they rub down into afine powderof a beautiful green colour; and that they maybe eithergiven in sub« stance or in infusion—whengiven in substance, the doseis from I apprehend the great efficacy of the digitalis will be experienced one to three grains, either byitself or mixed with aromatics, or in tubercular consumption. As far as my own experience has gone, which has been very extensive, this remedy I have found surpassall othersin spitting of blood, as well asin consumption, measles, and scarlet fever. made up into pills with soap or with gum ammoniac, When it is given in infusion, a drachm of the dried leaves is to be infused for four hours in eight ounces of boiling water, and then the liquor to be strained through a cloth, and an ounce of any spirituous wateris to be addedto it. An ounceof this infusion is a mean dose for an adult person, which may 'be ree peated twice in the day, or once in eight hours; though with me particular patients one dose is sufficient in the day. Dr. Vithering observes, that when the foxglove is given in large doses, frequently repeated, it occasions sickness, vomiting, purg- scribed. Great sleepiness seemed the gradation betweenthe ordinary state and depression. The patient observed thatit was * the most sleepy thing she had ever taken.” The other case now in progress is probably not a case of tu- bercular consumption. 3. In anasarcous and dropsical effusions. That a medicine so powerfully instrumental in retarding the circulation, so liable to produce oppressive sickness, together with pain and giddiness in the head, should have been frequently attended with alarming effects, and esteemed by many even as an absolute poison, is not to be wondered at, especially when it is considered that among the poor, where it was at first chielly used, its incautious exhibition would naturally lead to this conclusion. Even Ray, Boerhaave, and Haller, mention its operation as generally deleterious; what, however, is truly extraordinary, none of the oldgvriters, nor any of the moderns, I believe, previous to the year 1770, have mentioned its peculiar property as a diuretic, confining themselves principally to its administration in epilepsy and scrophulous ulcerations. Yet whilst the digitalis was generally known in these disorders, al. though seldom regularly practised, yet its diuretic effects were wholly overlooked ; and Dr. Withering has the undoubted claim of having first noticed this virtue; and the numerous cases Te- ing, giddiness, confused vision, an increased secretion of urine, and sometimes an inability to retain it; a slow pulse, so as not to beat abovethirty-five strokes in the minute; cold sweat, and evel syncope: when given in small doses he has found it pros duce many of these symptoms, but in a slighter degree, Sometimes the sickness does not take placetill hours after the exhibition of the medicine; the discharge by urine at times ace companies the sickness; at other times it is checked by it; and Sometimes it does not come on till some days after. lhe sickness occasioned by the digitalis is difierent from that occas tsioned by other medicines; after ceasing, it will return by Mtervals as violent as before, for three or four days. contestable evidence of its curative virtues in these disorders Dr, Withering further observes, that when adults takeeither the infusion or the powder, its use ought to be continuedtill it From a very extensive experience he draws the following cols acts either upon the kidneys or the stomach, or the bowels or Jated by him, and since by other practitioners, have afforded in- |