William Withering and the Introduction of Digitalis Into Medical Practice

[From Schenckius: Observationum Medicarum, Francofurti, 1609.] ANNALS OF MEDICAL HISTORY New Series , Volume VIII May , 1936 Numbe r 3 WILLIAM WITHERING AND THE INTRODUCTION OF DIGITALIS INTO MEDICAL PRACTICE By LOUIS H. RODDIS, COMMANDER, M.C., U.S.N. WASHINGTON, D. C. Part II* N interesting fea- as Dr. Fulton points out, there is no ture regarding the question that Darwin received his first early use of digi- acquaintancewithdigitalis from Wither- talis and the ques- ing. The evidence is indisputable as tion of the priority Withering himself cites the case (No. of Withering in its iv, M iss Hill) and says that Darwin was discovery, has been his consultant. Darwin mentions the brought out by case in his commonplace book but Professor John F. Fulton of Yale Uni- neither there nor in his published ac- versity School of Medicine. He has counts does he mention Withering’s shown that Erasmus Darwin, in an ap- name. His relations with Withering are pendix to the graduation thesis of his shown by some of his letters to have son Charles, which he published in been very unfriendly, at least after 1780, two years after Charles’ death. 1788, and he was probably jealous of gave some account of the use of fox- him. By our present standards Darwin’s glove with several case histories. March conduct in not mentioning Withering 16. 1785, Erasmus Darwin read a paper in either of his papers was distinctly which was dated January 14, 1785, and uncthical. which was published in the medical As he became more prosperous With- transactions, containing a reference to ering purchased a valuable piece of foxglove. These were probably the first property in Birmingham extending things in print in medical literature on back from High Street nearly to Can- the use of digitalis, as both were pub- non Street. Here he built a dwelling lished prior to Withering’s book. But, known as The Stone House though it is *Part I appeared in the March, 1936 issuc of Annal s of Medical History , n.s., vol. 8, P. 93. extremely doubtful if he lived there. In of the Mecfical Society of London, an- 1786 he leased the county seat of Lord other signal honor particularly to a Calthorpe, Edgbaston Hall. This house provincial physician. At Edgbaston Withering had for the first time a place of his own large enough to indulge his taste for country life. He began to build up a herd of Alderney cattle, or French cattle, as they were called then. Importation of these cattle to England, from the Chan- nel Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney was just beginning to be made, and their excellence as dairy ani- mals was just beginning to be realized. Withering was thus one of the pioneers in the introduction and breeding of these cattle on the mainland. was a fine old mansion situated in a He was also a breeder of Newfound- beautiful and extensive park. This is land dogs and became much interested now in the suburb of Birmingham in the subject of hydrophobia. He be- known as Edgbaston, but when occu- lieved there were two forms of the dis- pied by Withering it was in the coun- ease, a canine and a human type; the try. The old Worcester road passed hrst was limited to dogs, the latter along one boundary of the park. could be transmitted to man. He did The first few years spent at Edgbas- not believe in the efficacy of any in- ton were among the busiest of With- ternal treatment (there were a vast ering’s busy life. Here he edited the number of therapeutic agents recom- enlarged and revised editions of his mended for internal administration at botany, in 1787 and 1792. His reputa- this time) but strongly advocated the tion as a botanist was now world-wide most thorough treatment of the wound, and he carried on an extensive corre- excision if practicahle, if not, copious spondence with botanists everywhere. washings with colcl and then with warm The Frencli botanist, L’Heritier de water. A syringe was to be used to wash Brutelle, at this time honored him by out punctures made by the teeth, the naming a genus of plants after him, the syringe being used as an exhaust pump “Witheringia.” De Brutelle made the to exert suction, and to follow this with designation in these terms, “In memo- a caustic. Soap maker’s lye was the caus- riam celeberr, Guilielmi Withering, tic he recommended to be applied to Doct. Med. Soc. Reg. Lond. Soc. With- the “least appearance of a razure or eringia solanacea . .” wound.” Before the days of Pasteur this He was now at the zenith of his fame would be the very best treatment possi- both as a scientist and as a medical man. ble and, as we know, the cauterization In 1785, the same year as the publica- of the wound is stiil an important fea- tion of “An Account of the Foxglove,” ture of treatment. he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Withering had received as a present Society, the highest of scientific recog- some monkeys sent from Gibraltar. He nitions. He was also given the diploma noted in them the occurrence of tuber- culosis with all the symptoms of cough, ning. This was in September, 1789. fever and loss of weight, and autopsies This publication, with carefully kept revealed the appearance of pulmonary meteorological journals and studies of phthisis. weather in relation to the phases of the There was a constant stream of visi- moon, constituted Withering’s princi- tors at Edgbaston, many of them bear- pal contributions to meteorology and ing names notable in the history of the climatology. period. Necker, the fmancier, the father He was elected a Fellow of the Lin- of Madame de Stael. the Abbé Raynal, naean Society in this same year, though Dr. Reinhold Forster of Halle, an his- he was prevented from taking any part torian of Arctic exploration, and Dr. in the proceedings of the Society by a Peter Camper, the anatomist and Pro- severe attack of pleurisy. In the follow- fessor of Medicine at Groningen. It was ing year occurred the celebrated “Bir- a mecca for foreign botanists and min- mingham Riots” whicli caused Wither- eralogists visiting England. One of the ing niuch trouble and anxiety, some most interesting of the botanists was loss of property, and which also no Count Castiglioni who was proceeding doubt further impaired his failing to North America to bring back trees health. and shrubs for the purpose of introduc- The French Revolution created ing them into Tuscany. Another visitor more of a stir then than the Russian who greatly interested Withering was Revolution has today, and a Jacobin the celebrated Polish dwarf Count Bo- was more hated than a Communist is rawlaski. At the time of this visit the now by the mass of the people and the Count was forty-seven years of age. He strongly reactionary element. There was a perfect miniature of a man. His was no widespread disorder but there height was thirty-nine inches and, un- were many serious riots and acts of vio- like many dwarfs, he was extremely well lence against persons who too frankly proportioned and his countenance or tactlessly expressed their advocacy of handsome and prepossessing. He was of the doctrines of the French revolution- a noble Polish family, well educated ists. In Birmingham the rancor of the and with fine intellectual abilities, or as anti-Jacobins was directed largely Withering himself well expressed it, against Joseph Priestley, the great “his talents and acquirements happily chemist, who had made himself obnox- bear no proportion to the scale of his ious by too open expression of revolu- body.” tionary ideas. His house was burned by In 1790 Withering communicated to the mob and his valuable library, in- the Royal Society a paper entitled “An struments, and many manuscripts and Account of Some Extraordinary Effects notes destroyed. Priestley and his family of Lightning.” In this paper he de- succeeded in escaping. Withering had scribed the destruction of a house at been sympathetic toward the French Sutton-Coldfield on the 24th of June, Revolution as an attempt to give civil 1787, during a severe thunderstorm. liberty to a people groaning under op- The latter part of the paper dealt with pression until, as he expressed it, the the death of a laborer who had sought spirit of freedom “assumed the face of shelter from a storm under an oak tree a demon and vanished in a shower of in the Earl of Aylesford’s park at Pack- blood.” He was known, however, as a ington, and had been killed by light- revolutionary sympathizer and he was informed that his house would be de- health which by this time had become stroyed. He removed part of his library very bad. and scientific collections. After some se- Withering struggled against illness vere fighting a detachment of the mili- during the last twenty-five years of his tia arrived and the house was saved. life. He seems to have been a man of The anxiety and excitement, however, reasonably good natural endowments as had the worst possible effect upon his to health and constitution. He came of good stock physically, his mother hav- made an analysis of the waters of the ing lived to the age of eighty-one. Until celebrated hot springs at Caldas. He he was thirty-Hve years old Withering submitted a Memorial of the Caldas appears to have been remarkably well but in 1776 he had an attack of an ir- regular fever that probably marked the beginning of the tuberculous infection which eventually caused his death.

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