Tag: dropsy
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The other Charles Darwin (1758–1778)
JMS PearceHull, England, United Kingdom “’Precursoritis’ is the bane of historiography.”– Stephen Jay Gould One of the best-known and important discoveries in the practice of medicine was the introduction of digitalis by William Withering (Fig 1). It was the subject of controversy that involved the Darwin family. For almost two hundred years digitalis was the…
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William Withering and the use of foxglove in pediatric patients
Göran WettrellSweden William Withering’s An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses was published in 1785.1 The book received great attention and was the result of several years of clinical observations. On the title page, Withering chose a quotation from the Ars Poetica of Horace: nonumque permatur in annum, “let it be suppressed…