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  • Carthamus tinctorius L. Asteraceae. Safe Flower, False Saffron - Distribution: W. Asia. Dioscorides (in Beck, 2003) notes the seeds as a purgative, but also advises it made up with 30 figs, which must have helped. Gerard (1640) calls it Atractylis flore luteo the yellow distaffe thistle. and follows Dioscorides in its uses, but does get the reader confused with Cnicus benedictus, calling both plants 'wild bastard saffron'. Culpeper makes no mention of it in his early works, but later (1826) have the following: ‘Wild Saffon, or Saf-flower ... accounted a pretty strong cathartic [causing diarrhoea and vomiting], evacuating tough viscid phlegm, both upwards and downwards, and by that means is said to clear the lungs, and help the phthisic [now equated with tuberculosis]. It is likewise serviceable against the jaundice
  • A tea plantation in China: workers make tea chests. Coloured aquatint, early 19th century.
  • A tea plantation in China: workers prepare lead for tea containers. Coloured aquatint, early 19th century.
  • A tea plantation in China: workers tread the tea in baskets. Coloured aquatint, early 19th century.
  • A Chinese tea plantation with workers cleaning the racks on which the leaves are laid. Coloured etching, early 19th century.
  • Pleistocene deposits of the Thames valley. Iver, Bucks. View showing sections and early mechanical working in Mansion Lane pit. Iver Terrace.
  • Veratrum nigrum L. Melanthiaceae Distribution: Europe. Cows do not eat Veratrum species in the meadows, and human poisoning with it caused vomiting and fainting. In the 1850s it was found to reduce the heart's action and slow the pulse (Bentley, 1861, called it an 'arterial sedative'), and in 1859 it was used orally in a woman who was having convulsions due to eclampsia. Dr Paul DeLacy Baker in Alabama treated her with drops of a tincture of V. viride. She recovered. It was used thereafter, as the first choice of treatment, and, when blood pressure monitoring became possible, it was discovered that it worked by reducing the high blood pressure that occurs in eclampsia. By 1947 death rates were reduced from 30% to 5% by its use at the Boston Lying-in Hospital. It works by dilating the arteries in muscles and in the gastrointestinal circulation. A further use of Veratrum species came to light when it was noted that V. californicum - and other species - if eaten by sheep resulted in foetal malformations, in particular only having one eye. The chemical in the plant that was responsible, cyclopamine, was found to act on certain genetic pathways responsible for stem cell division in the regulation of the development of bilateral symmetry in the embryo/foetus. Synthetic analogues have been developed which act on what have come to be called the 'hedgehog signalling pathways' in stem cell division, and these 'Hedgehog inhibitors' are being introduced into medicine for the treatment of various cancers like chondrosarcoma, myelofibrosis, and advanced basal cell carcinoma. The drugs are saridegib, erismodegib and vismodegib. All the early herbals report on its ability to cause vomiting. As a herbal medicine it is Prescription Only, via a registered dentist or physician (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Veratrum album L. Melanthiaceae Distribution: Europe. Cows do not eat Veratrum species in the meadows, and human poisoning with it caused vomiting and fainting. In the 1850s it was found to reduce the heart's action and slow the pulse (Bentley, 1861, called it an 'arterial sedative'), and in 1859 it was used orally in a woman who was having convulsions due to eclampsia. Dr Paul DeLacy Baker in Alabama treated her with drops of a tincture of V. viride. She recovered. It was used thereafter, as the first choice of treatment, and when blood pressure monitoring became possible, it was discovered that it worked by reducing the high blood pressure that occurs in eclampsia. By 1947 death rates were reduced from 30% to 5% by its use at the Boston Lying in Hospital. It works by dilating the arteries in muscles and in the gastrointestinal circulation. A further use of Veratrum species came to light when it was noted that V. californicum -and other species - if eaten by sheep resulted in foetal malformations, in particular only having one eye. The chemical in the plant that was responsible, cyclopamine, was found to act on certain genetic pathways responsible for stem cell division in the regulation of the development of bilateral symmetry in the embryo/foetus. Synthetic analogues have been developed which act on what have come to be called the 'hedgehog signalling pathways' in stem cell division, and these 'Hedgehog inhibitors' are being introduced into medicine for the treatment of various cancers like chondrosarcoma, myelofibrosis, and advanced basal cell carcinoma. The drugs are saridegib, erismodegib and vismodegib. All the early herbals report on its ability to cause vomiting. As a herbal medicine it is Prescription Only, via a registered dentist or physician (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • [A new booke entyteled the regiment of lyfe: with a syngular Treatise of the pestilece].
  • The theory of the earth : containing an account of the original of the earth, and of all the general changes which it hath already undergone, or is to undergo till the consummation of all things. The two fisrt [sic] books, concerning the deluge, and concerning paradise.
  • Ḥeleḳ riʼshon [shelishi] mispar ha-ʻolamot o maʻaśeh ṭoviyah / [Tobias Cohen].
  • Ḥeleḳ riʼshon [shelishi] mispar ha-ʻolamot o maʻaśeh ṭoviyah / [Tobias Cohen].
  • Ḥeleḳ riʼshon [shelishi] mispar ha-ʻolamot o maʻaśeh ṭoviyah / [Tobias Cohen].
  • Ḥeleḳ riʼshon [shelishi] mispar ha-ʻolamot o maʻaśeh ṭoviyah / [Tobias Cohen].
  • Ḥeleḳ riʼshon [shelishi] mispar ha-ʻolamot o maʻaśeh ṭoviyah / [Tobias Cohen].
  • Ḥeleḳ riʼshon [shelishi] mispar ha-ʻolamot o maʻaśeh ṭoviyah / [Tobias Cohen].
  • Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium in qua omnes earum proprietates, praesertim quae ad generalionem ipsarum pertinent, fusius enarrantur / Cum praefatione illustris viri Alberti v. Haller. Edidit accuratisque iconibus ornavit, Augustus Johannes Rosel von Rosenhof. Die natürliche Historie der Frösche hiesigen Landes, etc.
  • Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium in qua omnes earum proprietates, praesertim quae ad generalionem ipsarum pertinent, fusius enarrantur / Cum praefatione illustris viri Alberti v. Haller. Edidit accuratisque iconibus ornavit, Augustus Johannes Rosel von Rosenhof. Die natürliche Historie der Frösche hiesigen Landes, etc.
  • Nouvelles expériences et observations sur divers objets de physique / Par Jean Ingen-Housz.
  • Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium in qua omnes earum proprietates, praesertim quae ad generalionem ipsarum pertinent, fusius enarrantur / Cum praefatione illustris viri Alberti v. Haller. Edidit accuratisque iconibus ornavit, Augustus Johannes Rosel von Rosenhof. Die natürliche Historie der Frösche hiesigen Landes, etc.
  • Cours d'operations de chirurgie, : demontrées au Jardin Royal, / par M. Dionis, premier chirurgien de feuës Mesdames les Dauphines; & Maître Chirurgien Furé à Paris.
  • Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium in qua omnes earum proprietates, praesertim quae ad generalionem ipsarum pertinent, fusius enarrantur / Cum praefatione illustris viri Alberti v. Haller. Edidit accuratisque iconibus ornavit, Augustus Johannes Rosel von Rosenhof. Die natürliche Historie der Frösche hiesigen Landes, etc.
  • The elements of medicine / Translated from the Latin, with comments and illustrations, by the author.
  • Disputationes ad morborum historiam et curationem facientes / quas collegit, edidit et recensuit Albertus Hallerus.
  • The regiment of life, wherevnto is added a treatise of the pestilence, with the booke of children / newly corrected and enlarged by Thomas Phaire.
  • A warning-piece to all drunkards and health-drinkers: faithfully collected from the works of English and foreign learned authors of good esteem, Mr. Samuel Ward and Mr. Samuel Clark, and others : with above one hundred and twenty sad and dreadful examples of Gods severe judgements upon notorious drunkards ... To which is added His Majesties proclamation against vicious ... persons ... Also some cautions of a learned doctor of physick [i.e. Everard Maynwaring], declaring how intemperate drinking destroyes our bodily health and strength.
  • Opera omnia, sive ars medicinalis. In qua cuncta quae ad humani corporis valetudinem praesentem tuendam, et absentem reuocandam pertinent, methodo exactissima explicantur / Quae per Vidum Vidium iuniorem diligentissime recognita, ac multis, quae ad eam perficiendam desiderabantur, partibus aucta, diuque expetita, nunc primum in Germaniâ tota simul luci data, tribusque tomis, quorum contenta altera exhibet pagina, comprehensa ; cum indicibus selectiorum accuratissimis.
  • Opera omnia. Nitidius, quam unquam hactenus edita, plurimum emendata, indicibus rerum copiosissimis, ac distinctione characterum exornata / Studio et opera Gerardi Blasii.
  • Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium in qua omnes earum proprietates, praesertim quae ad generalionem ipsarum pertinent, fusius enarrantur / Cum praefatione illustris viri Alberti v. Haller. Edidit accuratisque iconibus ornavit, Augustus Johannes Rosel von Rosenhof. Die natürliche Historie der Frösche hiesigen Landes, etc.
  • Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium in qua omnes earum proprietates, praesertim quae ad generalionem ipsarum pertinent, fusius enarrantur / Cum praefatione illustris viri Alberti v. Haller. Edidit accuratisque iconibus ornavit, Augustus Johannes Rosel von Rosenhof. Die natürliche Historie der Frösche hiesigen Landes, etc.