The
flowers are chiefly valued for their pleasant flavour, which is entirely
lost even by light coction. Lewis says, the College directed the syrup,
which is the only officinal preparation of them, to be made by infusion.
204. DIGITALIS purpurea. FOXGLOVE. The Leaves. L. E. D.--The leaves of
Foxglove have a nauseous taste, but no remarkable smell. They have been
long used externally to sores and scrophulous tumours with considerable
advantage. Its diuretic effects, for which it is now so deservedly
received into the Materia Medica, were entirely overlooked. To this
discovery Dr. Withering has an undoubted claim; and the numerous cures
of dropsy related by him and other practitioners of established
reputation, afford incontestable proofs of its diuretic powers, and of
its practical importance in the cure of those diseases. The dose of
dried leaves in powder is from one grain to three twice a-day; but if a
liquid medicine be preferred, a dram of the dried leaves is to be
infused for four hours in half a pint of boiling water, adding to the
strained liquor an ounce of any spiritous water. One ounce of this
infusion given twice a-day is a medium dose; it is to be continued in
these doses till it either acts upon the kidneys; the stomach, or the
pulse, (which it has a remarkable power of lowering,) or the bowels.--
Woodville's Med.
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