- William Withering
Infobox Scientist |name =William Withering
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birth_date =March 17 ,1741
birth_place =Wellington,Shropshire
death_date =October 6 ,1799
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citizenship = English
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field =botanist ,geologist ,chemist ,physician
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known_for =digitalis
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footnotes =William Withering (
March 17 ,1741 , Wellington,Shropshire October 6 ,1799 ) was an Englishbotanist ,geologist ,chemist ,physician and the discoverer ofdigitalis .Introduction
Trained as a doctor at the
University of Edinburgh , he worked atBirmingham General Hospital from 1779. The story is that he noticed a person with dropsy (swelling fromcongestive heart failure ) improve remarkably after taking a traditionalherb al remedy; William became famous for recognising that the active ingredient in the mixture came from thefoxglove plant. The active ingredient is now known asdigitalis , after the plant's scientific name. In 1785, Withering published "An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses", which contained reports onclinical trial s and notes on digitalis effects andtoxic ity.Biography
Born in Wellington,
Shropshire ,England , he attendedEdinburgh Medical School from 1762 to 1766. In 1767 he started as a consultant at Stafford Royal Infirmary. He married Helena Cookes (an amateur botanical illustrator, and erstwhile patient of his) in 1772; they had three children (the first, Helena was born in 1775 but died a few days later, William was born in 1776, and Charlotte in 1778). In 1775 he was appointed physician to Birmingham General Hospital (at the suggestion ofErasmus Darwin , a physician and founder member of theLunar Society ), but in 1783 he diagnosed himself as having pulmonary tuberculosis and went twice to Portugal hoping the better winter climate would improve his health; it didn't. On the way home from his second trip there, the ship he was in was chased by pirates. In 1785 he was elected a Fellow of the very prestigiousRoyal Society and also published his "Account of the Foxglove" (see below). The following year he leasedEdgbaston Hall (now home to agolf club andnature reserve ), inBirmingham ,England . He was one of the members of theLunar Society . [http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/publications/articles/vol31_no1/S_Withering.pdf "William Withering (1741-1799): A Birmingham Lunatic" "Proc R Coll Physicians Edinb 2001; 31:77-83." Accessed 25 September 2006] ] During the Birmingham riots of 1791 (in which Priestley's home was demolished) he prepared to flee from Edgbaston Hall, but his staff kept the rioters at bay until the military arrived. In 1799 he decided that he couldn't tolerate another winter in the cold and draughty Edgbaston Hall, so bought "The Larches" in the nearbySparkbrook area; his wife did not feel up to the move and remained at Edgbaston Hall. Tragically, after moving to "The Larches" on the 28 September, he died on 6 October.Memorials
He was buried on 10 October 1799 in Edgbaston old church next to the Edgbaston Hall, Edgbaston, Birmingham, although the exact site of his grave is unknown. The memorial stone, now moved inside the church, has foxgloves and Witheringia solanaceae (see below) carved upon it to commemorate his discovery and his wider contribution to botany. He is remembered by the Moonstones, also in Birmingham.
Botany
In 1776, he published "The botanical arrangement of all the vegetables naturally growing in Great Britain", an early and influential British Flora. It was the first in English based on the then new
Linnaean taxonomy - a classification of all living things - devised by the eminent Swedish botanist and physicianCarolus Linnaeus (1707-1778). Withering wrote two more editions of this work in 1787 and 1792, and after his death his son (also William) published four more. It continued being published under various authors until 1877. Withering senior also carried out pioneering work into the identification of fungi and invented a folding pocket microscope for use on botanical field trips. In 1787 he was elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society in recognition of his contribution to botany. Subsequently the plant "Witheringia solanacea" was named in his honour, and he became known on the continent of Europe as "The English Linnaeus". The standard botanical author abbreviation With. is applied to the entirespecies which includes "With. solanacea.Chemistry and geology
named the mineral "Witherite" in his honour. [http://www.jameslindlibrary.org/trial_records/17th_18th_Century/withering/withering_biog.pdf "William Withering (1741-1799): a biographical sketch of a Birmingham Lunatic." M R Lee, "James Lind Library", accessed 25 September 2006] ] He also undertook analyses of the mineral content of a number of spa waters in England and abroad, notably at the medicinal spa at "Caldas da Rainha" in Portugal. This latter undertaking occurred during the winter of 1793-4, and he was subsequently elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Portugal.
Discovery of digitalis
After the chance observation in 1775 of improvement in a patient with severe dropsy (swelling often caused by
congestive heart failure ) who should have died, Withering confirmed to his satisfaction that extracts of foxglove plant could help certain such cases. Over the ensuing nine years he carefully tried out different preparations of various parts of the plant (collected in different seasons) and documented 156 cases where he had employed digitalis, and described the effects and the best - and safest - way of using it. At least one of these cases was a patient whom Erasmus Darwin had asked Withering for his second opinion. In January 1785 Darwin submitted a paper entitled "An Account of the Successful Use of Foxglove in Some Dropsies and in Pulmonary Consumption" to the College of Physicians in London;Medical Transactions, Volume 3, 1785, published by the College of Physicians, London. Transaction XVI, pp 255-286] it was presented by Darwin in March of that year. A postscriptMedical Transactions, Volume 3, 1785, published by the College of Physicians, London. Transaction XXVIII, p 448] at the end of the published volume of transactions containing Darwin's paper states that "Whilst the last pages of this volume were in the press, Dr Withering of Birmingham... published a numerous collection of cases in which foxglove has been given, and frequently with good success". After this, Darwin and Withering became increasingly estranged, and eventually an acrimonious argument broke out apparently resulting from Darwin having accused Withering of unprofessional behaviour by effectively poaching patients. This is a very early example of medical academic plagiarism.Publications
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