withering

　

WordNet

1. in a withering manner; "guns fired witheringly at the railroad cars"

PrepTutorEJDIC

1. しぼませる,しおれさせる,枯らす / (人を)どぎまぎさせる

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出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』「2015/06/15 17:37:37」(JST)

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William Withering FRS
Born	(1741-03-17)17 March 1741 Wellington, Shropshire
Died	6 October 1799(1799-10-06) (aged 58) Sparkbrook, Birmingham
Citizenship	English
Nationality	English
Fields	Botanist, geologist, chemist, physician
Academic advisors	William Cullen
Known for	Discovery of digitalis
Signature

William Withering FRS (17 March 1741 – 6 October 1799) was an English botanist, geologist, chemist, physician and the discoverer of digitalis.

Introduction

Withering was born in Wellington, Shropshire, trained as a physician and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. He worked at Birmingham General Hospital from 1779. The story is that he noticed a person with dropsy (swelling from congestive heart failure) improve remarkably after taking a traditional herbal remedy; Withering became famous for recognising that the active ingredient in the mixture came from the foxglove plant. The active ingredient is now known as digitalis, after the plant's scientific name. In 1785, Withering published An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses, which contained reports on clinical trials and notes on digitalis's effects and toxicity.

Biography

Born in Wellington, Shropshire, England, he attended Edinburgh 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 of Erasmus Darwin, a physician and founder member of the Lunar 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 did not. 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 prestigious Royal Society and also published his Account of the Foxglove (see below). The following year he leased Edgbaston Hall (now home to a golf club and nature reserve), in Birmingham, England. He was one of the members of the Lunar Society. During the Birmingham riots of 1791 (in which Joseph 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 could not tolerate another winter in the cold and draughty Hall, so he bought "The Larches" in the nearby Sparkbrook area; his wife did not feel up to the move and remained at Edgbaston Hall. After moving to The Larches on 28 September, he died on 6 October 1799.

Memorials

William Withering's memorial plaque inside St Bartholomew's Church, Edgbaston

He was buried on 10 October 1799 in Edgbaston Old Church next to 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 also remembered by one of the Moonstones in Birmingham and by a blue plaque at Edgbaston Golf Club.

In July 2011 a J D Wetherspoon public house opened in Withering's birthplace, Wellington, and has been named after him.

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 physician Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778). At the time he was criticised for having produced a bowdlerised version of Linnaeus, deliberately omitting any references to sexual reproduction, out of a desire to protect 'female modesty', notably by the Lichfield Botanical Society. However he found plenty of support for his position, and botany was considered a subject unsuitable for many women during the next century.

Withering wrote two more editions of this work in 1787 and 1792, in collaboration with fellow Lunar Society member Jonathan Stokes, 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. He also introduced to the general audience the screw down plant press and the vasculum. 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 William Withering Chair in Medicine at the University of Birmingham Medical School is named after him, as is the medical school's annual William Withering Lecture.

Chemistry and geology

William Withering analysing thermal waters in Portugal

He was an enthusiastic chemist and geologist. He conducted a series of experiments on Terra Ponderosa, a heavy ore from Cumberland, England. He deduced that it contained a hitherto undescribed element which he was unable to characterise. It was later shown to be barium carbonate and in 1789 the eminent German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner named the mineral Witherite in his honour. The Matthew Boulton mineral collection of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery may contain one of the earliest known specimens of witherite. A label in Boulton's handwriting records; "No.2 Terra Ponderosa Aerata, given me by Dr. Withering”

Withering 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

Withering first learned of the use of Digitalis in treating "dropsy" (atrial fibrillation) from Mother Hutton, an old woman who practiced as a folk herbalist in Shropshire, who used the plant as part of a polyherbal formulation containing over 20 different ingredients to successfully treat this condition. Withering deduced that Digitalis was the "active" ingredient in the formulation, and over the ensuing nine years he carefully tried out different preparations of various parts of the plant (collected in different seasons) documenting 156 cases where he had employed digitalis, and describing the effects and the best - and safest - way of using it. At least one of these cases was a patient for 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; it was presented by Darwin in March of that year. A postscript 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 a horrendous 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

Blue plaque at Edgbaston Hall

This list is drawn from Sheldon, 2004:

• 1766 Dissertation on angina gangrenosa
• 1773 "Experiments on different kinds of Marle found in Staffordshire" Phil Trans. 63: 161-2
• Withering, William (1776a). A Botanical Arrangement of All the Vegetables Naturally Growing in Great Britain: With Descriptions of the Genera and Species, According to the System of the Celebrated Linnaeus. Being an Attempt to Render Them Familiar to Those who are Unacquainted with the Learned Languages. vol i. Birmingham: Swinney. Retrieved 24 February 2015. 
• Withering, William (1776b). A Botanical Arrangement of All the Vegetables Naturally Growing in Great Britain: With Descriptions of the Genera and Species, According to the System of the Celebrated Linnaeus. Being an Attempt to Render Them Familiar to Those who are Unacquainted with the Learned Languages. vol ii. Birmingham: Swinney. Retrieved 24 February 2015. 
• 1779 "An account of the scarlet fever and sore throat, or scarlatina; particularly as it appeared at Birmingham in the year 1778" Publ Cadell London
• 1782 "An analysis of two mineral substance, vz. the Rowley rag-stone and the toad stone" Phil Trans 72: 327-36
• 1783 "Outlines of mineralogy" Publ Cadell, London (a translation of Bergmann's Latin original)
• 1784 "Experiments and observations on the terra ponderosa" Phil trans 74: 293-311
• 1785 "An account of the foxglove and some of its medical uses; with practical remarks on the dropsy, and some other diseases" Publ Swinney, Birmingham
• 1787 "A botanical arrangement of British plants..." 2nd ed. Publ Swinney, London
• 1788 Letter to Joseph Priestley on the principle of acidity, the decomposition of water. Phil Trans 78: 319-330
• 1790 "An account of some extraordinary effects of lightning" Phil Trans 80: 293-5
• 1793 "An account of the scarlet fever and sore throat..." 2nd ed Publ Robinson, London
• 1793 "A chemical analysis of waters at Caldas" extract from Actas da Academica real das Sciencias
• 1794 "A new method for preserving fungi, ascertained by chymical experiments" Trans Linnean Soc 2: 263-6
• 1795 "Analyse chimica da aqua das Caldas da Rainha" Lisbon (a chemical analysis of the water of Caldas da Rainha)
• 1796 "Observations on the pneumatic medicine" Ann Med 1: 392-3
• 1796 "An arrangement of British plants..." 3rd ed. Publ Swinney, London
• 1799 "An account of a convenient method of inhaling the vapour of volatile substances" Ann Med 3: 47-51

Notes

References

Further reading

• George, Sam (2007). Botany, sexuality, and women's writing 1760-1830 : from modest shoot to forward plant. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719076978. Retrieved 23 February 2015. 
• William Withering Junior (1822). Miscellaneous Tracts. Two volumes: a memoir by Withering's son, and a collection of many of his writings
• Louis H Roddis (1936). William Withering - The Introduction of Digitalis into Clinical Practice. A brief biography
• TW Peck and KD Wilkinson (1950). William Withering of Birmingham. A detailed biography
• Ronald T Mann (1985). William Withering and the Foxglove. An account of the "Osler bequest", a collection of Withering's letters
• J K Aronson (1985). An Account of the Foxglove and its Medical Uses 1785-1985. An annotated version of the Withering's work, with a modern analysis of the cases described
• Jenny Uglow (2002). The Lunar Men. ISBN 0-571-19647-0. An account of the members of the Lunar Society, their endeavours, and relationships
• Linné, Carl von (1785) [1774]. Systema vegetabilium (13th edition of Systema Naturae) [A System of Vegetables 2 vols.]. Lichfield: Lichfield Botanical Society. Retrieved 24 February 2015. 
• Fara, Patricia (2003). Sex, Botany and Empire: The Story of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks. Cambridge: Icon Books. ISBN 9781840464443. Retrieved 22 February 2015. 

External links

• Edgbaston Hall Nature Reserve
• Revolutionary Players website
• 'An account of the foxglove' book
• Works by William Withering at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about William Withering at Internet Archive

UpToDate Contents

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• 1. ジギタリス（強心配糖体）中毒 digitalis cardiac glycoside poisoning

English Journal

• Clinical Use of Digitalis: A State of the Art Review.

• Whayne TF Jr1.
• American journal of cardiovascular drugs : drugs, devices, and other interventions.Am J Cardiovasc Drugs.2018 Jul 31. doi: 10.1007/s40256-018-0292-1. [Epub ahead of print]
• PMID 30066080

• Age-associated methylation change of CHI promoter in herbaceous peony ( Paeonia lactiflora Pall).

• Wu Y1, Liu L2, Zhao D2, Tao J3.
• Bioscience reports.Biosci Rep.2018 Jul 30. pii: BSR20180482. doi: 10.1042/BSR20180482. [Epub ahead of print]
• PMID 30061184

• On-vine withering process of 'Moscato bianco' grapes: effect of cane-cut system on volatile composition.

• Giacosa S1, Giordano M1, Vilanova M2, Cagnasso E1, Río Segade S1, Rolle L1.
• Journal of the science of food and agriculture.J Sci Food Agric.2018 Jul 25. doi: 10.1002/jsfa.9281. [Epub ahead of print]
• PMID 30047150

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• 足尾銅山が引き起こした鉱害における環境およびヒトへの影響

• 国際医療福祉大学学会誌 20(2), 59-69, 2015-08-25
• NAID 110009939173

• 鹿児島茶の香りと官能評価 品種や製法による多様性 (特集 お茶の香り)

• におい・かおり環境学会誌 46(2), 149-155, 2015-03
• NAID 40020412543

• 磯焼け対策における栄養塩供給対策の限界(平成26年度日本水産工学会春季シンポジュウム「磯焼け対策ガイドラインの検証と広域藻場回復に向けて」)

• 水産工学 51(3), 247-252, 2015-02-15
• NAID 110009917804

Related Links

• Withering | Define Withering at Dictionary.com

Withering definition, to shrivel; fade; decay: The grapes had withered on the vine. See more. Dictionary.com Word of the Day Translate Games Blog Thesaurus.com Apps Favorites Log Out Log In follow Dictionary.com My Account ...

• Withering - definition of withering by The Free Dictionary

Let it move thee, crafty, ill-conditioned monster, to see my blooming youth- still in its teens, for I am not yet twenty- wasting and withering away beneath the husk of a rude peasant wench; and if I do not appear in that shape now, it is ...

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