Women Taught Doctors to Cure Dropsy Poem by Paul Hartal

Dropsy, or edema, an abnormal swelling of the ankles and legs
is associated with heart inefficiency, liver and kidney damage.
This disease could not be cured in the past by conventional doctors. However, in traditional folk medicine, especially female herbalists could treat dropsy successfully.

In the 18th century the British physician William Withering tried but failed to help a woman who suffered from dropsy.
Then one day he heard
that his patient was healed after drinking a herbal trea.
He was intrigued and decided to learn more about folk medicine.
In 1785 Withering contacted in Shropshire a herbalist named
Mrs. Hutton, an old lady who provided him with a droxy healing
herbal concoction. Withering invesigated the mixture and found
that the active dropsy healing ingredient was the digitalis
in the foxglove plant.

Over a period of a decade, Dr. Withering treated 158 patients with foxglove and proved the clinical value of digitalis.101 of his patients who suffered from congestive heart failure experienced relief after treatment with the drug.