Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events
17 results
  • A woman representing pharmacy receives gifts of materia medica from vegetable and mineral sources, and with the aid of a herbal distils them into medicines; above, Apollo gives authority to Hippocrates as other Olympians stand outside the temple of Aesculapius. Etching by R. de Hooghe.
  • Smyrnium olusatrum L. Apiaceae. Alexanders, Black Lovage, Horse Parsley. Distribution: W & S Europe, Mediterranean. Culpeper (1650) writes: ‘Hipposelinum. Alexanders or Alisanders, provoke urine, expel the afterbirth, provoke urine, help the strangury, expel the wind.’ Culpeper has taken this mainly from Dioscorides’ Materia Medica (circa 100 AD). The genus name is said to derive from Smyrna, a city which was founded by Alexander the Great (although there was one which pre-dated his Smyrna). on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. The species name comes from the Latin olus meaning a pot herb (cooking vegetable) and atrum meaning black, in reference to the seeds. It is described as tasting like a rather bitter, second-class celery. The English name may derive from Alexandria or Alexander the Great. It is rarely used in herbal medicine now. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum / cvm expositione Arnoldi de Villanova. Noviter impressvs.
  • The English physitian: or an astrologo-physical discourse of the vulgar herbs of this nation. Being a compleat method of physick ... / By Nich. Culpeper.
  • The English physitian: or an astrologo-physical discourse of the vulgar herbs of this nation. Being a compleat method of physick ... / By Nich. Culpeper.
  • The English physitian: or an astrologo-physical discourse of the vulgar herbs of this nation. Being a compleat method of physick ... / By Nich. Culpeper.
  • The English physitian: or an astrologo-physical discourse of the vulgar herbs of this nation. Being a compleat method of physick ... / By Nich. Culpeper.
  • Hygieia, Telesphorus and Aesculapius watch the presentation of exotic plants to a woman representing Knowledge (?), under the protection of the Academia Naturae Curiosorum, while a crowd of sick people wait expectantly. Engraving, 16--.
  • Chinese Materia Medica illustration, Ming: Sesame of Jinzhou
  • Chinese Materia Medica illustration, Ming: Cluster mallow
  • A pharmacy. Oil painting by a French painter, ca. 1700 (?).
  • A pharmacy. Oil painting by a French painter, ca. 1700 (?).
  • A pharmacy. Oil painting by a French painter, ca. 1700 (?).
  • A pharmacy. Oil painting by a French painter, ca. 1700 (?).
  • A pharmacy. Oil painting by a French painter, ca. 1700 (?).
  • A pharmacy. Oil painting by a French painter, ca. 1700 (?).
  • Chinese materia medica (Ming), .Contents page