r, having
heard of the success which had attended some cases in which you had
given it, requested me to obtain for him any information you might be
inclined to communicate respecting its use. In consequence of this
application, you wrote to me in the following terms.[3]

[Footnote 3: See the extract from this letter at page 5.]

In a letter which I received from you in London, dated _September_ 29,
1778, you write as follows:--"I wish it was as easy to write upon the
Digitalis--I despair of pleasing myself or instructing others, in a
subject so difficult. It is much easier to write upon a disease than
upon a remedy. The former is in the hands of nature, and a faithful
observer, with an eye of tolerable judgment, cannot fail to delineate
a likeness. The latter will ever be subject to the whims, the
inaccuracies, and the blunders of mankind."--

In my notes I find the following memorandum--"_February_ 20th, 1779,
gave an account of Doctor Withering's practice, with the precautions
necessary to its success, to the Medical Society at Edinburgh."--In
the course of that year, the Digitalis was prescribed in the Edinburgh
Infirmary, by Dr. Hope, and in the following year, whilst I was Clerk
to Dr. Home, as Clinical Professor, I had a favourable opportunity of
observing its sensible effects.

In one case in which it was given properly at first, the urine began
to flow freely on the second day. On the third, the swellings began to
subside. The dose was then increased more than _quadruple_ in the
twenty-four hours. On the fifth day sickness came on, and much
purging, but the urine still increased though the pulse sunk to 50. On
the 7th day, a _quadruple_ dose of the infusion was ordered to be
taken every third hour, so as to bring on nausea again. The pulse fell
to forty-four, and at length to thirty-five in a minute. The patient
gradually sunk and died on the sixteenth day; but previous to her
death, for two or three days, her pulse rose to near one hundred.--It
is needless to observe to you, how widely the treatment of this case
differed from the method which you have found so successful.

OF THE PLATE.

The figure of the Foxglove, facing the Title Page, is copied by the
permission and under the inspection of Mr. Curtis, from his admirable
work, entitled FLORA LONDINENSIS. The accuracy of the drawings, the
beauty of the colouring, the full descriptions, the accurate specific
disti