Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 115-116. (Budapest, 19869
KISEBB KÖZLEMÉNYEK — ELŐADÁSOK - Ringelhann, Béla: A digitalis 200 éve az orvostörténetben (angol nyelven)
would bring good results. That the Digitalis is ' 'power of motion on the heart ' ' is even more important, because no other medication has this effect. [1] In his later years Withering had to fight his own illness. He contracted pleuritis and travelled to Portugal in 1790. He felt much better in this country, pursued his botanical researches and was elected an honorary member of the Portuguese Royal Academy. He returned to Portugal in 1793, but this time his health did not improve. When back in his homeland he visited Stonehenge and wrote an essay on what he saw there. But his state of health became worse, he could no longer moove, he vomited blood, and finally, at the age of 58 in 1799 he died. The age he lived in was a revolutionary period in the history of science. The steam engine, gas lighting and the weaving machine were invented, the oxygen discovered and produced, and he saw the French and the American revolutions. Pitt, Johnson, Beethoven, Mozart, Voltaire and Linneus were among his contemporaries. Withering was an excellent botanist to whom we should be greatful for discovering the positive effects of the Digitalis, an expert in chemistry, especially in the field of crystals, a great a meteorologist who, among other observations, documented the earthquakes that occured in England in 1795. Ferner in 1789 [7] and Gullen in 1799 [6] assumed that the slowing pulse-rate was a normal effect of the Digitalis, but the diuresis was not. Drake, Beddoes [8] and Flower used foxglove between 1800 and 1820. but it remained always unclear to them how a drug which slows down the blood-flow could enhance diuresis at the same time. Piepenbring noted in 1796 that foxglove was effective only if it grew in its natural habitat, the ones that grew in a garden did not have the same constitutes. According to him, the plant proved to be excellent in the treatment of dropsy and sufficient in the treatment of goiter and skrofula [2] The leaves of the plant separated from the stem should be used, best if gathered in June and July. A small amount effects the intestins, enhances diuresis and brings the pulse-rate down to 40 per minute which is very slow. He also discovered that Digitalis had a significant cummulative effect. [6] In Medical Botany by Woodwiil (1790) Lettson is mentioned, a London physician, who treated seven patients with the dose suggested by Withering and they all died. According to Withering's response, the dose r Aas not satisfactory for the patients in question, because it was ten times more than what he usually' gave, and this enormous overdose caused the casualties. [10] Later the foxglove was also used in France, but with less success. When Shrön prescribed foxglove to a patient in 1803, it was not available in any of the pharmacies in Paris. [11] A year after its publication, in 1786, the German translation of Withering's book followed and the medical dissertation of Schiemann was a book written in Latin, in which the advantages of Digitalis Purpurea were verified based on experiments done on animals. [12] Foxglove was used in powder and tablet form in Vienna. [13] In Padua, Italy in 1810 Fanzago recommended the foxglove, he attributed the diminishing of the cerebrovascular fluid to its effects, as well. [14] Speaking about the foxglove in 1816, Kreyssig, a German physician states that the drug was excellent for patients suffering from heart diseases. [15] Bahr wrote a book on the physiological and therapeutic effects of the foxglove in which he mentioned that between 1542 and 1859 1.22 references had been made to foxglove. [16] In 1828 Vogt stated that in cases of dropsy Digitalis was the best diuretic drug, but it did not have the same effect on healthy people. Scilla maritima is a similar medication according to him. He suggests to give the Digitalis in small doses, if the amount is raised, it is very important that the pulse-rate slows down to 30 to 40 per minute. Vogt does not agree with Kreyssig in that Digita lis enhances the strength of the heart and the blood-pressure in the artheries. [17]
