Part 31

I could wish those gentlemen who intend to make use of this plant, to collect it in a hot dry day, when the petals fall, and the seed-vessels begin to swell.

The leaves kept to the second year are weaker, and their diuretic qualities much diminished. It will therefore be necessary to gather the plant fresh every season.

These cautions are unnecessary to the accurate botanist, who well knows, that a plant in the spring, though more succulent and full of juices, is destitute of those qualities which may be expected when that plant has attained its full vigour, and the seed-vessels begin to be manifest. But for want of attention to these particulars, its virtues may be thought exaggerated, or doubtful, if beneficial consequences do not always flow from its use. There are diseases it cannot cure; and in several of those patients in this town, who first took the Digitalis by your orders, there was the most positive proof of the viscera being unsound. In these desperate cases it often procured a plentiful flow of urine, and palliated a disease which medicine could not remove.

At a remote distance, physicians are seldom applied to for advice in trifling disorders. Many remedies have been tried without relief, and the disease is generally obstinate or confirmed.--It would not be fair to try the merits of the Digitalis in this scale. It might often fail of promoting the end desired. I flatter myself the reputation of this plant will be equal to its merit, and that it will meet with a candid reception.

As there is no pleasure equal to relieving the miseries and distresses of our fellow-creatures, I hope you will long enjoy that peculiar felicity.

Permit me to return my thankful acknowledgments, for your free communication of a medicine, by which means, through the blessing of providence, I have been enabled to restore health and happiness to many miserable objects.

I am, &c. Yours, J. WAINWRIGHT.

Dudley, April 26th, 1785.

CASE of Mr. WARD, Surgeon, in Birmingham.--Related by himself.

In September, 1782, I was seized with a difficulty of breathing, and oppression in my chest, in consequence of taking cold from being called out in the night. My tongue was foul; my urine small in quantity; my breath laborious and distressing on the slightest exercise. I tried the medicines most generally recommended, such as emetics, blisters, lac ammoniacum, oxymel of squills, &c. but finding little or no relief, I consulted Dr. Withering, who advised me to try the following prescription.

R. Fol. Digital. purp. siccat. [Symbol: dram]iss. Aq. bullientis [Symbol: ounce]iv. Aq. cinn. sp. [Symbol: ounce]ss. digere per horas quatuor, et colaturæ capiat cochlear. i. nocte maneque.

He also desired me to take fifty drops of tincture of cantharides three or four times a day.

After taking eight ounces of the infusion, and about twelve drams of the drops, I was perfectly cured, and have had no return since. The medicine did not occasion sickness or vertigo, nor had they any other sensible effect than in changing the appearance, and increasing the quantity of the urine, and rendering the tongue clean. After the last dose or two indeed, I had a little nausea, which was immediately removed by a small glass of brandy.

Birmingham, 1st July, 1785.

Communications from Mr. YONGE, Surgeon, in Shiffnall, Shropshire.

Dear SIR,

I have great satisfaction in complying with your just claim, by transcribing outlines of the subsequent cases, for insertion in your long requested tract on the Digitalis purpurea. The two first of these you will easily recollect, the cures having been conducted immediately under your own management, and the whole may add to that weight of evidence which long experience enables you to adduce of the efficacy of that valuable medicine. I have recited the only instances of its failure which occur to me, but many other, though successful cases, wherein its utility might seem dubious, and also the accounts received from people whose accuracy might be suspected, I shall not for obvious reasons trouble you with.

I am, dear Sir, Your obliged friend, WILLIAM YONGE.

Shiffnall, May 1, 1785.

CASE I.

A Gentleman aged 49, on the night of the 21st of August, 1784, awaked with a sense of suffocation, which obliged him to rise up suddenly in bed. I found him complaining of difficult respiration, particularly on lying down; the countenance pale, and the pulse smaller and quicker than usual. Some brandy and water having been given, the symptoms gradually abated, so that he slept in a half recumbent posture. The following day he expressed a sense of anxiety and weight in the chest, attended by quicker breathing upon motion of the body. That evening an emetic of ipecacoanha was given, and afterwards a draught, with vitriolic æther and confect. card. aa [Symbol: dram]i to be repeated as the symptoms should require it. He continued to be affected with slighter returns of the dyspnoea at irregular intervals, until September 15th, when upon a more severe attack, the emetic was repeated. He now recollected some slight pain in his arms which had affected him previous to this last seizure, and was disposed to consider his complaint as rheumatic. Pills with gum ammoniac. gum guaiac. and antimonial powder were directed, with infus. amar. simpl. twice a day. The bowels were regulated by aperient pills of pulv. jalap. aloes and sal. tartar. and [Symbol: dram]iss balsam peruv. was given occasionally to alleviate the paroxysms of dyspnoea.

From this period until the beginning of November, little amendment or variation happened, except that respiration became more permanently difficult, and particularly oppressed upon motion, nor was it relieved by the expectoration of a mucous discharge, which now increased considerably. Squills, musk, ol. succini, æther, with other medicines of the same kind, were now used, but without success. The effects of opium and venæfection were tried. The appetite diminished, and his sleep became short and disturbed. He sometimes slept lying upon his back, but generally upon his left side. The urine which had hitherto been of good colour, and sufficient quantity, now became diminished, and lateritious; and the ancles oedematous.

On the 15th of November a blister was laid over the sternum, and [Symbol: dram]iss of oxymel scillitic. was given every eight hours.

On the 18th, a more copious discharge of urine took place; the swelling of the feet soon disappeared, and the respiration became gradually relieved.

On the 30th [Symbol: dram]i tinct. cantharidum twice a day in pyrmont water, with pills of ammoniac, sal tartar. et extract. gentian. were substituted, but

On the 7th of December, from some symptoms of relapse, the oxymel was used as before, and continued to be taken until the 27th, in doses as large as could be dispensed with on account of the great nausea which attended its exhibition: The urine was made in the quantity of four or five pints each day, during the whole time; the quantity then drank being seldom more than three pints. But now the sickness being exceedingly depressing, the strength failing, and the diuretic effects beginning to cease, the following prescription was directed.

R. Fol. Digitalis purpur. pulv. [Symbol: scruple]ss. Spec. Aromatic. [Symbol: scruple]i. sp. lav. c. f. pilul. no. x. capiat i. nocte maneque, et alternis diebus sensim augeatur dosin.

In three days the effect of this medicine became visible, and when the dose of the Digitalis had been increased to six grains per day, the flow of urine generally amounted to seven pints every twenty-four hours. Not the least sickness, nor any other disagreeable symptom supervened, though he persevered in this plan until the end of January at which time the dyspnoea was removed, and he has continued gradually to regain his flesh, strength, and appetite, without any relapse.