# Is "An Account of the Foxglove" by William Withering a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of An Account of the Foxglove by William Withering (G.G.J. and J. Robinson, 1785) is identified by: First and only 18th-century English edition, full title An Account of the Foxglove, and Some of Its Medical Uses: With Practical Remarks on Dropsy, and Other Diseases, printed in Birmingham by M.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First and only 18th-century English edition, full title An Account of the Foxglove, and Some of Its Medical Uses: With Practical Remarks on Dropsy, and Other Diseases, printed in Birmingham by M. Swinney for G.G.J. and J. Robinson of London
- Illustrated with a folding hand-colored frontispiece plate of the foxglove plant
- The text presents case histories of 158 patients Withering treated with digitalis, the first systematic clinical account of the drug as a treatment for dropsy (congestive heart failure)
- Because the work was not reprinted in English during Withering's lifetime (a contemporary German translation appeared the same year), any English-language copy dated 1785 with the Birmingham/Robinson imprint is the first edition
- Publisher imprint reads G.G.J. and J. Robinson
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | William Withering |
| Publisher | G.G.J. and J. Robinson |
| Year | 1785 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First and only 18th-century English edition, full title An Account of the Foxglove, and Some of Its Medical Uses: With Practical Remarks on… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First and only 18th-century English edition, full title An Account of the Foxglove, and Some of Its Medical Uses: With Practical Remarks on Dropsy, and Other Diseases, printed in Birmingham by M. Swinney for G.G.J. and J. Robinson of London. Illustrated with a folding hand-colored frontispiece plate of the foxglove plant. The text presents case histories of 158 patients Withering treated with digitalis, the first systematic clinical account of the drug as a treatment for dropsy (congestive heart failure). Because the work was not reprinted in English during Withering's lifetime (a contemporary German translation appeared the same year), any English-language copy dated 1785 with the Birmingham/Robinson imprint is the first edition.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
Later facsimile and scholarly reset reprints (including 20th-century editions) are widely available and are not the original printing; genuine period copies are typically bound in contemporary calf rather than later cloth or paper wrappers.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *An Account of the Foxglove* by William Withering a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/an-account-of-the-foxglove
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.