ces in support of a favorite medicine, and I allow they may have
some cause for their hesitation; nor do I expect they will wave their
usual modes of judging upon the present occasion. I could wish
therefore that such readers would pass over what I have said, and
attend only to the communications from correspondents, because they
cannot be supposed to possess any unjust predilection in favour of the
medicine: but I cannot advise them to this step, for I am certain they
would then close the book, with much higher notions of the efficacy of
the plant than what they would have learnt from me. Not that I want
faith in the discernment or in the veracity of my correspondents, for
they are men of established reputation; but the cases they have sent
me are, with some exceptions, too much selected. They are not upon
this account less valuable in themselves, but they are not the proper
premises from which to draw permanent conclusions.

I wish the reader to keep in view, that it is not my intention merely
to introduce a new diuretic to his acquaintance, but one which, though
not infallible, I believe to be much more certain than any other in
present use.

After all, in spite of opinion, prejudice, or error, TIME will fix the
real value upon this discovery, and determine whether I have imposed
upon myself and others, or contributed to the benefit of science and
mankind.

_Birmingham, 1st July,_ 1785.

INTRODUCTION.

The Foxglove is a plant sufficiently common in this island, and as we
have but one species, and that so generally known, I should have
thought it superfluous either to figure or describe it; had I not more
than once seen the leaves of Mullein[1] gathered for those of
Foxglove. On the continent of Europe too, other species are found, and
I have been informed that our species is very rare in some parts of
Germany, existing only by means of cultivation, in gardens.

[Footnote 1: Verbascum of Linnaeus.]

Our plant is the _Digitalis purpurea_[2] of Linnaeus. It belongs to the
2d order of the 14th class, or the DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA. The
_essential characters_ of the genus are, _Cup with 5 divisions.
Blossom bell-shaped, bulging. Capsule egg-shaped, 2-celled._--LINN.

[Footnote 2: The trivial name _purpurea_ is not a very happy
one, for the blossoms though generally purple, are sometimes
of a pure white.]

DIGITA'LIS _purpu'rea_. Little leaves of the empal