Digitalis Poisoning and Its Treatment

Abstract

THERE is no more fitting introduction to the subject of digitalis intoxication than William Withering's description, in his "An Account of the Foxglove," of a visit to a traveling Yorkshire tradesman:I found him incessantly vomiting, his vision indistinct, his pulse forty in a minute. Upon enquiry, it came out that his wife had stewed a large handful of green foxglove leaves in a half pint of water and given him the liquor which he drank at one draught ... this good woman knew the medicine of her country, but not the dose of it, for the husband narrowly escaped . . .