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  • A physician by his patient's death-bed; represented with a skeletal death figure at the window and an undertaker's assistant arriving with a coffin. Coloured etching by T. Rowlandson, 1813?, after R. Newton.
  • Three London scenes: a man being cajoled by two prostitutes, a young man being accosted by two debt-collectors, and a physician attending a patient. Coloured etching by G. Cruikshank after J. Sheringham, 1821.
  • A physician reeling with surprise at an obese elderly man's pulse, the patient is grinning at a woman who approaches him with a tray full of food and wine. Photogravure after J.G. Vibert.
  • A physician reeling with surprise at an obese elderly man's pulse, the patient is grinning at a woman who approaches him with a tray full of food and wine. Photogravure after J.G. Vibert.
  • A physician asks a nurse how his patient is: she replies that he is rambling and delirious but the last sensible thing he uttered was an insulting remark about the doctor. Wood engraving, 1891.
  • A physician asks a nurse how his patient is: she replies that he is rambling and delirious but the last sensible thing he uttered was an insulting remark about the doctor. Wood engraving, 1891.
  • An excited physician examining a urine specimen and referring to a book, while the patient waits for the diagnosis, two assistants are mixing concoctions in the background. Mezzotint by J.B. Enzensberger after D. Teniers, the younger.
  • A physician examining a urine specimen in which a faint figure of a baby is visible, a female patient is crying and being shouted at by her angry mother, indicating that she is pregnant. Watercolour by I.T., 1826.
  • A physician examining a urine specimen in which a faint figure of a baby is visible, a female patient is crying and being shouted at by her angry mother, indicating that she is pregnant. Watercolour by I.T., 1826.
  • William Gladstone as a physician taking the pulse of a man ill with influenza (flu), and giving his diagnosis to the patient's friend (another politician); representing a case of excessive political interference by railway financiers. Lithograph attributed to Sam. B., ca. 1870.
  • An easy and exact method of curing the veneral disease, in all its different appearances ... And likewise a method of curing the scurvy, gleets, whites, etc. ... with an account of its nature, causes, and symptoms: demonstrated by way of dialogue between physician and patient, for the use and instruction of all unfortunate persons who may labour under that disorder ... / [John Profily].
  • M0007077: Manuscript illustration of three physicians and a patient
  • Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, Hampshire: six scenes of nurses, nurse and patient, patients, hospital wards, treatment and physicians. Process print.
  • Gardenia jasminoides J.Ellis Rubiaceae. Cape jasmine - as erroneously believed to have come from South Africa. Distribution: China. Named for Dr Alexander Garden FRS (1730-1791) Scottish-born physician and naturalist who lived in Charles Town, South Carolina, and corresponded with Linnaeus and many of the botanists of his era. The fruits are used in China both as a source of a yellow dye, and for various unsubstantiated medicinal uses. Other species of Gardenia are found in tropical Africa and the roots and leaves have all manner of putative uses. Gardenia tenuifolia is used as an aphrodisiac, for rickets, diarrhoea, leprosy, gall bladder problems, toothache, liver complaints, diabetes, hypertension, malaria and abdominal complaints. It causes violent vomiting and diarrhoea. It, and other species, are used to poison arrows and to poison fish. Some native, muthi medicine, healers regard Gardenia as a ‘last chance’ medicine, given to patients when all else fails – the patient either dies or recovers (Neuwinger, 1996). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Physicians and nurses inspecting in-patients at Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton. Aquatint by L. Duxbury, ca. 1990.
  • Patients being tended and treated by nurses and physicians on a hospital ward. Line engraving by C. de Passe after M. de Vos.
  • Patients being tended and treated by nurses and physicians on a hospital ward. Line engraving by C. de Passe after M. de Vos.
  • A swollen lethargic patient with ten physicians seated around a table on which are axes and a halter; symbolising England's government and the need for reform. Engraving, 1756.
  • Three leeches in the role of physicians attend a grasshopper in the role of the patient and propose diet and bloodletting. Coloured lithograph after J.J. Grandville, ca. 1832.
  • Two physicians applying the method of cauterisation to clearly defined points of the back and side of two patients. Pen drawing after an Anglo Saxon tenth century manuscript.
  • The conclave of physicians, detecting their intrigues, frauds, and plots, against their patients. Also a peculiar discourse of the Jesuits bark: the history thereof, with its true use, and abuse. Moreover, a narrative of an eminent case in physick / By Gideon Harvey.
  • A discourse setting forth the unhappy condition of the practice of physick in London, and offering some means to put it into a better; for the interest of patients, no less, or rather much more, then of physicians / [Jonathan Goddard].
  • Stokesia laevis Greene Asteraceae. Stoke's Aster, Cornflower Aster. Distribution: South-eastern USA. Named by Charles Louis L’Héritier in 1789 for Dr Jonathan Stokes (1755-1831), a member of the Lunar Society and Linnean Society, botanist and physician. Stokes dedicated his thesis on dephlogisticated air [later realised to be oxygen] to Dr William Withering and wrote the preface to Withering’s iconic work On the Foxglove (1785). He also contributed histories on six patients he had treated for heart failure (‘dropsy’) with foxglove leaf, Digitalis, in his medical practice in Stourbridge. He continued at the Lunar Society until 1788
  • Pulsatilla vulgaris Mill. Ranunculaceae Distribution: Europe. Lindley (1838) and Woodville (1790) knew this as Anemone pulsatilla, the common name being Pasque (Easter) Flower. At the end of the 18th century it was recommended for blindness, cataracts, syphilis, strokes and much more, treatments which, as was clear to physicians at the time, were valueless. Gerard (1633) writes: ‘They serve only for the adorning of gardens and garlands, being floures of great beauty’. It is in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, all members of which are poisonous. It was recommended, by mouth, for ‘obstinate case of taenia’ (tapeworms). One hopes it was more toxic to the worm than the patient. Flowers with a central disc and radiating florets were regarded as being good for eye complaints under the Doctrine of Signatures. Porta (1588) writes (translated): ‘Argemone [Papaver argemone], and anemone, have flowers of this shape, from this they cure ulcers and cloudiness of the cornea’. There were occupational diseases even before there were words like pneumoconiosis, and Lindley writes that ‘the powder of the root causes itching of the eyes, colic and vomiting, if in pulverising it the operator do not avoid the fine dust which is driven up.’ Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Pulsatilla vulgaris Mill. Ranunculaceae. Pasque flower. Distribution: Europe. Lindley (1838) and Woodville (1790) knew this as Anemone pulsatilla, the common name being Pasque (Easter) Flower. At the end of the 18th century it was recommended for blindness, cataracts, syphilis, strokes and much more, treatments which, as was clear to physicians at the time, were valueless. Gerard (1633) writes: ‘They serve only for the adorning of gardens and garlands, being floures of great beauty’. It is in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, all members of which are poisonous. It was recommended, by mouth, for ‘obstinate case of taenia’ (tapeworms). One hopes it was more toxic to the worm than the patient. Flowers with a central disc and radiating florets were regarded as being good for eye complaints under the Doctrine of Signatures. Porta (1588) writes (translated): ‘Argemone [Papaver argemone], and anemone, have flowers of this shape, from this they cure ulcers and cloudiness of the cornea’. There were occupational diseases even before there were words like pneumoconiosis, and Lindley writes that ‘the powder of the root causes itching of the eyes, colic and vomiting, if in pulverising it the operator do not avoid the fine dust which is driven up.’ Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Pulsatilla vulgaris Mill. Ranunculaceae Pasque flower. Distribution: Europe. Lindley (1838) and Woodville (1790) knew this as Anemone pulsatilla, the common name being Pasque (Easter) Flower. At the end of the 18th century it was recommended for blindness, cataracts, syphilis, strokes and much more, treatments which, as was clear to physicians at the time, were valueless. Gerard (1633) writes: ‘They serve only for the adorning of gardens and garlands, being floures of great beauty’. It is in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, all members of which are poisonous. It was recommended, by mouth, for ‘obstinate case of taenia’ (tapeworms). One hopes it was more toxic to the worm than the patient. Flowers with a central disc and radiating florets were regarded as being good for eye complaints under the Doctrine of Signatures. Porta (1588) writes (translated): ‘Argemone [Papaver argemone], and anemone, have flowers of this shape, from this they cure ulcers and cloudiness of the cornea’. There were occupational diseases even before there were words like pneumoconiosis, and Lindley writes that ‘the powder of the root causes itching of the eyes, colic and vomiting, if in pulverising it the operator do not avoid the fine dust which is driven up.’ Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Vicia faba L. Fabaceae. Broad beans, Fava bean. Distribution: N. Africa, SW Asia. Culpeper (1650) writes: 'Fabarum. Of Beans. Of Bean Cods (or Pods as we in Sussex call them) being burned, the ashes are a sovereign remedy for aches in the joints, old bruises, gout and sciaticaes.’ The beans are perfectly edible for the majority, but 1% of Caucasians, predominantly among Greeks, Italians and people from the Eastern Mediterranean regions, have a genetic trait in that they lack the ability to produce the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. As a consequence, eating broad beans or even inhaling the pollen, causes a severe haemolytic anaemia a few days later. This condition is known as favism. The whole plant, including the beans, contains levodopa, a precursor of dopamine, and some patients with Parkinsonism report symptomatic improvement after commencing on a diet that contains these beans regularly. A case of neuroleptic malignant-like syndrome (fever, rigidity, autonomic instability, altered consciousness, elevated creatine phosphokinase levels) consequent on abrupt discontinuation of a diet containing plenty of broad beans, has been described in a patient with Parkinsonism. This is usually seen when patients abruptly discontinue L-dopa therapy. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Physicians disputing while the patient suffers. Oil painting after (?) Johann Geyer.
  • A young lady reclining, being attended by a physician. Lithograph.
  • "The physician's verdict". Oil painting by Emile Carolus Leclercq, 1857.