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39 results
  • Hacquetia epipactis DC Apiaceae. Small herbaceous perennial. No common name except Hacquetia Distribution: Europe. Named for the Austrian physician, Balthasar (or Belsazar) Hacquet (1739/40-1815). He studied medicine in Vienna, was a surgeon in the brutal Seven Years War (1756-1763) – a world-wide war in which up to 1,400,000 people died. Later he was professor at the University of Lemberg (1788-1810). He wrote widely on many scientific disciplines including geology. Parkinson (1640) grouped it with Helleborus and Veratrum, calling it 'Epipactis Matthioli, Matthiolus, his bastard black hellebore' but does not give any uses. It has no medicinal properties. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Zantedeschia aethiopica (L)Spreng. Calla lily, Arum lily. Half hardy annual. Distribution: South Africa. The genus name commemorates Giovanni Zantedeschi (1773-1846) an Italian physician and botanist. Born in Molina he studied medicine in Verona and Padua. He corresponded with the German botanist, Kurt Sprengel, who named the genus Zantedeschia in his honour in 1826, separating it from Calla, where, as C. aethiopica, it had been previously described by Linnaeus. He had broad interests, including the effect of different parts of the spectrum of light on plant growth, reporting in 1843, that red, orange and yellow light are heliotropically inactive. The botanic museum in Molina is dedicated to his memory. Aethiopica, merely means 'African'. The leaves are used as a warm poultice for headaches in ‘muthi’ medicine. It has become an invasive weed in parts of Australia. It was introduced, as a greenhouse plant, to Europe in the mid-17th century, where the long lasting flowers are popular in flower arranging and for weddings and funerals – a curious combination (Oakeley, 2012). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Paris: a medical professor taking the pulse of a sick man in a hospital bed while medical students watch and take notes. Drawing by J.H. Marlet, ca. 1810.
  • Paris: a medical professor taking the pulse of a sick man in a hospital bed while medical students watch and take notes. Drawing by J.H. Marlet, ca. 1810.
  • Kaiser-Wilhelms Akademie, Berlin: souvenir of the dedication of the new building, 1910. Line block and halftone, 1910.
  • Buildings and alumni of St Thomas's Hospital, London. Colour lithograph by Beynon & Company.
  • Surgeons and physicians of Guy's Hospital, Southwark, London, with views of the building. Colour lithograph by M. & N. Hanhart after Beynon & Company.
  • Buildings and alumni of University College Hospital, London. Colour lithograph by Beynon & Company.
  • Buildings and alumni of University College Hospital, London. Colour lithograph by Beynon & Company.
  • Buildings and alumni of University College Hospital, London. Colour lithograph by Beynon & Company.
  • Surgeons and physicians of Guy's Hospital, Southwark, London, with views of the building. Colour lithograph by M. & N. Hanhart after Beynon & Company.
  • Surgeons and physicians of St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, with views of the building and adjacent churches. Colour lithograph by Beynon & Company after F. Hager.
  • Buildings and surgeons and physicians of King's College Hospital, London. Coloured lithograph by Beynon & Company after H. Hale.
  • John Coakley Lettsom, physician, with his family, in the garden of Grove Hill, Camberwell.
  • An itinerant quack-doctor. Oil painting by an English painter, mid-19th century.
  • An itinerant quack-doctor. Oil painting by an English painter, mid-19th century.
  • An itinerant quack-doctor. Oil painting by an English painter, mid-19th century.
  • An itinerant quack-doctor. Oil painting by an English painter, mid-19th century.
  • An itinerant quack-doctor. Oil painting by an English painter, mid-19th century.
  • Sequah on Clapham Common. Oil painting, ca. 1890.
  • Sequah on Clapham Common. Oil painting, ca. 1890.
  • Sequah on Clapham Common. Oil painting, ca. 1890.
  • Sequah on Clapham Common. Oil painting, ca. 1890.
  • Sequah on Clapham Common. Oil painting, ca. 1890.
  • Sequah on Clapham Common. Oil painting, ca. 1890.
  • Sequah on Clapham Common. Oil painting, ca. 1890.
  • Sequah on Clapham Common. Oil painting, ca. 1890.
  • Magnetic resonance imaging MRI showing sexual intercourse
  • Magnetic resonance imaging MRI showing sexual intercourse
  • Ruscus aculeatus L. Ruscaceae Butchers Broom., Box holly, Knee Holly, Jew’s myrtle. Distribution: Mediterranean to Britain. Aculeatus means 'prickly' which describes the plant well. Dioscorides in 70 AD (Gunther, 1959) says of this plant ‘... ye leaves and berries drunk in wine have ye force to move urine, expel the menstrua, and to break ye stones in ye bladder ...’ and adds also ‘ ... it cures also ye Icterus and ye strangurie and ye headache.' Its use did not change for a millennium and a half