Acute and Chronic Heart Failure

Withering demonstrated 200 years ago in the year 1784 that "drop­ sy" could be successfully treated with foxglove extracts. This dis­ covery eventually led to the scientifically based treatment of heart failure with chemically defined digitalis glycosides. In Germany, particularly, the usefulness of this development was greatly exagger­ ated and often resulted in the indiscrimate use of digitalis ...