Wlliam Withering was a British doctor, botanist and mineralogist. He was the first person to describe in scientific terms how the digitalis plant could be used to treat heart disease. He also discovered a mineral, barium carbonate, which was named witherite after him. The artist Carl Fredrik von Breda worked in London in the 1790s. Among his commissions was to paint portraits of members of the Lunar Society, of which Withering was a member.