William Withering (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 at the University of Edinburgh. He worked at Birmingham General Hospital from 1779. The story's that he noticed a person with dropsy (swelling from congestive heart failure) improve remarkably after taking a traditional herbal remedy; Withering became famous f… (More on With)