E11 The Botanic Garden Part II: The Loves of Plants by Erasmus Darwin

Send us Fan MailAn immersive reading of excerpts from ‘The Botanic Garden Part II: The Loves of Plants’ by Erasmus Darwin with reflection on dropsy, digitalis, heart failure and medical myths. Excerpts 415 Bolster'd with down, amid a thousand wants,        Pale Dropsy rears his bloated form, and pants;        "Quench me, ye cool pellucid rills!" he cries,        Wets his parch'd tongue, and rolls his hollow eyes.        So bends tormented TANTALUS to drink,420 While from his lips the refluent waters shrink;        Again the rising stream his bosom laves,        And Thirst consumes him 'mid circumfluent waves.        —Divine HYGEIA, from the bending sky        Descending, listens to his piercing cry;425 Assumes bright DIGITALIS' dress and air,        Her ruby cheek, white neck, and raven hair;        Four youths protect her from the circling throng,        And like the Nymph the Goddess steps along.—        —O'er Him She waves her serpent-wreathed wand,430 Cheers with her voice, and raises with her hand,        Warms with rekindling bloom his visage wan,        And charms the shapeless monster into man.Reference https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10671 (Lines 415-432) Accessed 1.15.22Thibodeau JT, Turer AT, Gualano SK, et al. Characterization of a novel symptom of advanced heart failure: bendopnea. JACC Heart Fail. 2014;2(1):24-31.Falk RH. "Bendopnea" or "kamptopnea?": Some thoughts on terminology and mechanisms. JACC Heart Fail. 2014 Aug;2(4):425.Littler WA. Withering, Darwin and digitalis. QJM. 2019 Dec 1;112(12):887-890.Littler WA. William Withering digitalis and the pulse. QJM. 2019 Aug 1;112(8):565-566Smulyan H. The Beat Goes On: The Story of Five Ageless Cardiac Drugs. Am J Med Sci. 2018 Nov;356(5):441-450.Krikler DM. Withering and the foxglove: the making of a myth. Br Heart J. 1985;54(3):256-257. doi:10.1136/hrt.54.3.256Wilcox RA , Whitham EM. The symbol of modern medicine: why one snake is more than two. Ann Intern Med. 2003;138:673–677.Rogers, Kara. "Guinea Worm Disease". Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Jul. 2018, https://www.britannica.com/science/guinea-worm-disease. Accessed 21 February 2022.