I had the favour of your letter last week; and I shall be very happy
if I can give you any intelligence relating to the Foxglove, that can
answer the purpose in which you are so laudably engaged.

It is true that my brother, the late Dr. Cawley, was greatly relieved,
and his life, perhaps, prolonged for a year, by a decoction of the
Foxglove root; but why it had not a more lasting effect, it is
necessary I should tell you that he had all the signs of a distempered
viscera, long before any watery swellings appeared; it was manifest
that his dropsy was merely symptomatic, and he could therefore only
from time to time have any relief from medicine. In the year 1776, he
returned from London to Oxon. having consulted several physicians at
the former place, and Dr. Vivian at the latter, but without any
success; and he was then told of a carpenter at Oxon. that had been
cured of a Hydrops pectoris by the Foxglove root, and as he was a
younger, and in other respects an healthy man, his cure, I believe,
remains a perfect one.

I did not attend my brother whilst he took the medicine, and therefore
I cannot speak precisely to the operation of it; but I remember, by
his letters, that he was dreadfully sick and ill for several days
before the secretion of urine came on, but which it did do to a great
degree; relieved his breath, and greatly lessened the swelling in his
legs and thighs; but the two instances I have lately seen in this part
of the world, are much stronger proofs of the efficacy of it than my
brother's case.

I am, &c.
ROBERT CAWLEY.

N. B. Whenever I have another opportunity of giving the Foxglove, it
shall be in small doses:--In which I should hope it might succeed,
although it might be more slowly. If you should try it with success, I
should be glad to know what mode you made use of.

Dr. Cawley's prescription.

R. Rad. Digital. purpur. siccat. et contus. [Symbol: ounce]ii.

Coque ex aq. font. [Symbol: pound]ii. ad [Symbol: pound]i.
colat. liquor. adde aq. junip. comp. [Symbol: ounce]ii.

Mell. anglic [Symbol: ounce]i. m. sumat cochl. iv. omni nocte h. s. et
mane.

--I have elsewhere remarked, that when the Digitalis has been properly
given, and the diuretic effects produced, that an accidental over-dose
bringing on sickness, has stopped the secretion of urine. In th