An Account of the Foxglove

William Withering, discover of digitalis, began practising as a doctor in Stafford in 1767. It was a small practice, and he found time to study flowers, which were painted for him by Helena Cook, who became his wife. He soon moved to Birmingham, where his first book, A Botanical Arrangement, was published in 1776. It went through several editions and was still in print 101 years later.

In 1775 Withering, whose father was an apothecary, was given a secret family recipe for the treatment of dropsy. Withering realised that the active ingredient was the foxglove. This he tried out on his patients over the years in different preparations …