A historical remedy study
By Roger van Zandvoort
One taxon, several drug materials
The botanical anchor is Digitalis purpurea L., accepted by Kew in Plantaginaceae. The species is native to western and southwestern Europe and northern Morocco. Withering explicitly identified his British foxglove as Linnaeus's species and warned that mullein leaves had been gathered for it in error. His book even specifies its flowering state for leaf collection.
Keep green-leaf decoction, dried-leaf infusion, leaf powder, root decoction, mixed herbal preparations, and Hahnemann's fresh leaf juice with equal alcohol as distinct materials. Older references to foxglove, Digitalis, cardiac glycosides, digitalin or digoxin cannot be silently treated as identical exposures. Older books place the plant under Scrophulariaceae; the modern family is Plantaginaceae.
The 1785 Withering book has 163 continuously numbered therapeutic episodes, not 163 independently verified humans, cures, intoxications, or provings. His correspondent cases start new numbering. No remedy grade is inferred from either sequence.
The sources in historical order
1542 - Source: Fuchs, De historia stirpium | What enters the record: Early botanical description and image; exact original page remains to inspect. | Counting status: 0 exposed humans established here
1583, via 1785 - Source: Dodoens, p. 170, quoted in Withering's historical view | What enters the record: Unspecified people vomited after a dish containing foxglove and other leaves. | Counting status: One mixed-exposure group report; people unresolved
1753 - Source: Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 2:621 | What enters the record: Taxonomic name Digitalis purpurea. | Counting status: Species anchor, not a human account
1775–78 - Source: Withering's retrospective introduction | What enters the record: Unnamed Shropshire herbalist, compound family recipe, Dr Cawley's root treatment, and first Withering patients. | Counting status: Knowledge and patient accounts separated
1780 - Source: Darwin, appended foxglove cases | What enters the record: Published treatment accounts preceding Withering's book. | Counting status: Original pages and overlap with Withering pending
1785 - Source: Withering, An Account of the Foxglove | What enters the record: 163 numbered episodes, a dose-and-preparation discussion, adverse reactions, and separately attributed correspondents. | Counting status: All numbered cases located; distinct people still being checked
1825 edition - Source: Hahnemann, Fingerhut | What enters the record: Fresh expressed leaf-juice preparation and a proving compilation. | Counting status: Original pages and proving participants still to be checked
1859 - Source: Baehr's German monograph | What enters the record: Later physiological and therapeutic material for comparison with earlier sources. | Counting status: Individual accounts not yet studied
1876 and 1884 - Source: Allen IV; Stewart | What enters the record: Authority cross-reference and later independent discussion. | Counting status: Neither substitutes for original exposures
Before Withering's patients
Withering says that in 1775 he was told of a family dropsy recipe kept by an unnamed woman in Shropshire. It contained at least twenty herbs and was reported to cause violent vomiting and purging. The woman is a prior knowledge contributor; the book gives neither her name nor a patient-by-patient diary. Calling her “Mother Hutton” would add an identity Withering's account does not supply.
Withering inferred foxglove was the active plant, then made his own trials with the leaves. That inference does not retroactively convert the herbalist's compound recipe into pure foxglove intoxications or a measured cure series. He also records hearing of folk foxglove tea use in Yorkshire and describes one travelling tradesman who became dangerously ill after his wife prepared a strong green-leaf decoction. The man was exposed; the wife supplied and prepared the medicine, but is not herself an intoxicated patient.
Material and people
Dodoens's omelette, the Shropshire recipe, Withering's decoction and Hahnemann's alcoholic juice remain separate material lanes. An unnamed group can count as one report-level source, not as an invented number of independent people.
Individual account starters
The record of people contains the first checked accounts; the list of all 163 cases preserves their original numbering. Their identities and outcomes still need checking. The examples below show why one case heading cannot automatically be counted as one distinct person.
W001: unnamed former builder, about 50, 1775
After a green-leaf decoction for dropsical illness, Withering reports recurrent sickness over several days, markedly increased urine, easier breathing and reduced abdominal swelling. This is one treated person with both an adverse effect and a claimed response, not a healthy proving.
Withering, case I, printed pp. 11–12.
W002: unnamed poor man, 1776
Initial decoction purged him without the intended relief; an opiate was then added and the urinary response followed. The second phase cannot be called an unconfounded foxglove-only effect.
Withering, case II, printed p. 12.
W003: unnamed boy, about nine, 1776
Withering reports diuresis and recovery without sickness after decoction. He is a distinct narrated child, but cross-source identity has not yet been checked.
Withering, case III, printed p. 12.
W004: Mrs. H., 1776
Withering and Erasmus Darwin attended her together. He reports severe illness before foxglove, then sickness and marked diuresis after it, followed by other medicines and recurrent dropsy over subsequent years. Darwin's earlier printed account may concern this same woman; until collated, the two texts provide no second human.
Withering, case IV, printed pp. 12–16; Darwin 1780 overlap under review.
Travelling Yorkshire tradesman
Strong green-leaf tea given by his wife was followed by incessant vomiting, indistinct vision and a pulse of 40 per minute. Withering says he nearly died. This is a therapeutic overexposure, not a healthy proving.
Withering, Introduction, printed p. 10.
Unnamed Edinburgh Infirmary woman
A correspondent describes escalating infusion doses, sickness and purging, a pulse that fell to 35, and death on day 16. The sequence is a serious toxicology signal under treatment; disease and causal alternatives still require audit.
Withering, historical-view correspondence, printed pp. xx–xxi.
Edward James and Sarah Ford, 1784–85
These are named late cases CLXII and CLXIII. Edward James's narrative came via W. Bayley and includes infusion, other interventions, later leaf-powder pills, giddiness and stomach discomfort. Sarah Ford received compound pills and had increased urine and reported improvement. Their named status helps audit source identity; it does not turn them into provers or uncomplicated cures.
Withering, printed pp. 104–108.
Thomas Cooke and Thomas Roberts
Daniel Boden's two named correspondent patients follow the main 163-case series. Each received mixed regimens. Roberts was treated again after relapse; that repeat is one human, not an extra patient.
Withering, correspondence, printed pp. 112–113.
Three people in Withering's pages
These are not new patients added to the count above. They make the contrast between a reported treatment response, an overexposure, and a complicated follow-up easier to see.
1775 / the former builder
A man of about fifty was swollen with dropsy and short of breath. Withering reported that a green-leaf decoction made him repeatedly sick, but also greatly increased his urine; his breathing and abdominal swelling then eased. Both the unwanted effect and the reported relief belong to the same treated person.
The Yorkshire tradesman / too strong a tea
A travelling tradesman's wife prepared a strong tea from green foxglove leaves. In Withering's account, he vomited incessantly, his vision blurred and his pulse slowed to forty beats per minute. The wife is a knowledge and preparation contributor; the man is the exposed patient. This is a warning about a plant preparation, not a healthy proving.
1776 onward / Mrs. H. returns
Withering and Erasmus Darwin both saw Mrs. H. after serious illness. Withering described sickness and marked urine flow after foxglove, followed by other medicines and recurring dropsy over later years. Her return visits make one long, complicated course, not a string of separate cures or separate people. Darwin's earlier publication may retell the same woman.
Provisional evidence picture
Across these inspected accounts, sickness and vomiting, purging, visual disturbance, giddiness, and slow pulse appear after taking foxglove; increased urine and relief of fluid accumulation appear in treatment accounts. They cannot yet be merged into a single graded symptom list: the people, preparation strengths, existing illnesses and other drugs differ. Each observation remains linked to the person and source that reported it.
Treatment response is not a proving. Poisoning is not a cure. A later repetition of the same patient is not another person. Typography-based grades (plain, italic, bold) are intentionally absent.
The homeopathic layer begins later
Hahnemann's 1825 German Fingerhut section specifies freshly expressed Digitalis purpurea leaf juice mixed with equal alcohol, and presents a collection of symptoms. Allen's later volume IV lists Hahnemann and thirteen other early authorities before a much larger set of medical sources. This is a guide to the next original-source audit, not proof that each authority corresponds to a separate, healthy prover or to a unique symptom contributor.
Hahnemann's original printed pages, first-edition wording and named participants still need to be checked before attributing symptoms to individuals. Baehr's 1859 monograph and Stewart's 1884 paper are available, but their individual accounts have not yet been counted.
What the numbers can mean
163 - Supported meaning: Withering's continuous case headings, I–CLXIII. | Not yet established: 163 unique people; 163 cures; 163 toxicology cases.
14 - Supported meaning: Hahnemann plus thirteen additional early authorities in Allen's key. | Not yet established: Fourteen unique healthy provers or fourteen supports for any particular symptom.
One group report - Supported meaning: Dodoens's foxglove-and-other-leaves omelette, passed on through Withering. | Not yet established: Number of exposed humans or pure foxglove causality.
One person, repeat account - Supported meaning: Dr Cawley appears in Withering's introduction and his brother Robert's letter. | Not yet established: Two independent patients.
Read the sources
Readers can consult Fuchs's 1542 herbal, Darwin's 1780 publication, Withering's 1785 page images or its public transcription, Baehr's 1859 monograph, and Allen's later compilation. The unpublished person-by-person account notes are kept separately; where an original edition has not been checked, that limit remains stated above.
Priority checks: Fuchs p. 893 and Dodoens p. 170 page images; Darwin 1780 pp. 103–112 and overlap with Withering case IV; all Withering repeat identities and correspondent cases; Hahnemann original German page images and contributor attribution; Baehr and Stewart person-by-person extraction. Later clinical glycoside poisoning must be kept distinct from plant and homeopathic preparation lanes.
Editorial note: These are historical reports from the linked sources. They are presented for source study and do not by themselves demonstrate efficacy or provide medical advice.
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