Walking with the Ancestors - William Withering

The Great Breakthrough

Withering's discovery was not in itself a new one, as the foxglove had been used in the treatment of ailments for many centuries in the form of plasters and ointments. Owing to its toxicity, the drug, which is known to improve the force, pace and speed of heart contractions, often induced poisoning in patients when it was administered in too large a quantity and had become unpopular among the medical establishment in the treatment of cardiac illnesses. Between 1775 and 1784 Withering scrupulously recorded the cases of 156 patients treated with digitalis and was able to establish an effective dose for the drug that avoided unpleasant side-effects, while arguing that creating an infusion from the plant's leaves (dried powder) was a more effective treatment than boiling them (decoction) which he suspected would inactivate their therapeutic properties. These conclusions formed the basis of Withering's ground-breaking work, An Account of the Foxglove and Some of its Medical Uses (1785), which forced a re-evaluation of medical opinion and legitimised the use of digitalis in cardiac treatment.