ABSTRACT
The foxglove plant was often given to help when a person’s heart was failing. Modern doctors use medicine from foxglove to treat heart disease. If the cold went into his lungs and turned into bronchitis or pneumonia, it was often a death sentence. There were no antibiotics to help cure these illnesses, so it was a matter of whether the body could survive the disease. It was a horrible death that triggered muscle spasms so severe that the jaw would lock shut and the whole body would jerk from the tightened muscles. The spasms were so violent that they could break the bones of the victim. Illness and disease were worldwide. In what would become modern-day China, Egypt, Turkey, Japan, and Italy, men and women struggled to figure out ways to help the sick and dying. But doctors are able to prevent diseases with vaccinations, cure infections with antibiotics, and perform surgery to help heal internal organs.
