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  • As people collapse with snake bites, Moses brings out the brazen serpent. Woodcut.
  • Moses and Eleazar show the brazen serpent before the writhing multitude afflicted with snake-bites. Engraving by S. à Bolswert after P.P. Rubens, ca. 1635-40.
  • An itinerant salesman selling amulets against the bites of snakes and other animals to a crowd of people who purchase them eagerly. Etching by B. Pinelli, 1815.
  • An itinerant salesman selling amulets against the bites of snakes and other animals to a crowd of people who purchase them eagerly. Etching by B. Pinelli, 1815.
  • A salesman in Rome with a snake selling amulets as antidotes or prophylactics against snake-bite to a crowd of people. Etching by B. Pinelli, 1821.
  • A salesman in Rome with a snake selling amulets as antidotes or prophylactics against snake-bite to a crowd of people. Etching by B. Pinelli, 1821.
  • A salesman in Rome with a snake selling amulets as antidotes or prophylactics against snake-bite to a crowd of people.. Pen drawing by B. Pinelli, 1821.
  • A snake poised to bite; representing a mouthful of knowledge about AIDS through publications by the Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe. Colour lithograph by E. Hüskes, 1995.
  • A snake poised to bite; representing a mouthful of knowledge about AIDS through publications by the Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe. Colour lithograph by E. Hüskes, 1995.
  • Paeonia officinalis L. Paeoniaceae, European Peony, Distribution: Europe. The peony commemorates Paeon, physician to the Gods of ancient Greece (Homer’s Iliad v. 401 and 899, circa 800 BC). Paeon, came to be associated as being Apollo, Greek god of healing, poetry, the sun and much else, and father of Aesculapius/Asclepias. Theophrastus (circa 300 BC), repeated by Pliny, wrote that if a woodpecker saw one collecting peony seed during the day, it would peck out one’s eyes, and (like mandrake) the roots had to be pulled up at night by tying them to the tail of a dog, and one’s ‘fundament might fall out’ [anal prolapse] if one cut the roots with a knife. Theophrastus commented ‘all this, however, I take to be so much fiction, most frivolously invented to puff up their supposed marvellous properties’. Dioscorides (70 AD, tr. Beck, 2003) wrote that 15 of its black seeds, drunk with wine, were good for nightmares, uterine suffocation and uterine pains. Officinalis indicates it was used in the offices, ie the clinics, of the monks in the medieval era. The roots, hung round the neck, were regarded as a cure for epilepsy for nearly two thousand years, and while Galen would have used P. officinalis, Parkinson (1640) recommends the male peony (P. mascula) for this. He also recommends drinking a decoction of the roots. Elizabeth Blackwell’s A Curious Herbal (1737), published by the College of Physicians, explains that it was used to cure febrile fits in children, associated with teething. Although she does not mention it, these stop whatever one does. Parkinson also reports that the seeds are used for snake bite, uterine bleeding, people who have lost the power of speech, nightmares and melancholy. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Paeonia officinalis L. Paeoniaceae, European Peony, Distribution: Europe. The peony commemorates Paeon, physician to the Gods of ancient Greece (Homer’s Iliad v. 401 and 899, circa 800 BC). Paeon, came to be associated as being Apollo, Greek god of healing, poetry, the sun and much else, and father of Aesculapius/Asclepias. Theophrastus (circa 300 BC), repeated by Pliny, wrote that if a woodpecker saw one collecting peony seed during the day, it would peck out one’s eyes, and (like mandrake) the roots had to be pulled up at night by tying them to the tail of a dog, and one’s ‘fundament might fall out’ [anal prolapse] if one cut the roots with a knife. Theophrastus commented ‘all this, however, I take to be so much fiction, most frivolously invented to puff up their supposed marvellous properties’. Dioscorides (70 AD, tr. Beck, 2003) wrote that 15 of its black seeds, drunk with wine, were good for nightmares, uterine suffocation and uterine pains. Officinalis indicates it was used in the offices, ie the clinics, of the monks in the medieval era. The roots, hung round the neck, were regarded as a cure for epilepsy for nearly two thousand years, and while Galen would have used P. officinalis, Parkinson (1640) recommends the male peony (P. mascula) for this. He also recommends drinking a decoction of the roots. Elizabeth Blackwell’s A Curious Herbal (1737), published by the College of Physicians, explains that it was used to cure febrile fits in children, associated with teething. Although she does not mention it, these stop whatever one does. Parkinson also reports that the seeds are used for snake bite, uterine bleeding, people who have lost the power of speech, nightmares and melancholy. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Asphodeline lutea Rchb. Yellow asphodel, King's spear, Hastula regia. Hardy rhizomatous perennial. Distribution Mediterranean and Caucasus. It is the flower of the dead, as Homer writes that it carpets an area in the gloomy darkness of the underworld (Hades), in Greek mythology where the souls of the dead are found. However this may be a misinterpretation of the Greek where 'Asphodel' has been read instead of 'ash-filled'. In the etymology of flower names, it is suggested that the yellow 'daffodil' is a corruption of French or Flemish 'de asphodel' (both ex Steve Reece, 2007). An Aristotelian epigram, refers to it growing on tombs: 'On my back I hold mallow and many-rooted asphodel ...' The asphodel was sacred to Persephone, goddess of the underworld, who was seized and wed by Hades, god of the underworld, and taken to his kingdom. Her disappearance brings the winter, and her reappearance each year, the spring. The only reliable source of information about its early medical uses is, probably, Dioscorides although the plant in his De Materia Medica may be A. ramosus or A. albus. He gives its properties as diuretic, induces menses, good for coughs and convulsions, an antidote to snake bite, applied as a poultice for sores of all sorts, and in compounds for eye, ear and tooth pains, and to cure alopecia and vitiligo, but induces diarrhoea and vomiting and is an anti-aphrodisiac. Fuchs (1542), as Ruel’s commentaries (1543) note, makes a big mistake as he has Lilium martagon as his concept of A. luteus. Ruel only illustrates its leaves and roots, calling it Hastula regia (Latin for King’s spear) but Matthiolus's Commentaries (1569 edition) has a reasonable woodcut also as Hastula regia (1569). Dodoen's Cruydeboeck (1556) does not mention or illustrate Asphodelus luteus. L'Escluse's French translation Histoire des Plantes (1557) follows the Cruydeboeck. Dodoen's Latin translation Stirpium Historia Pemptades Sex (1583) adds A. luteus with text and woodcut, with no uses. Henry Lyte's (1578) translation illustrates Asphodelus luteus as Asphodeli tertia species and 'Yellow affodyl' (vide etymology of 'daffodil') and also does not describe any uses for it. Gerard's translation The Herbal (1597 and 1633) continues the muddle and does not give any uses for this plant. Parkinson's comments (1640) on the lack of medicinal properties of asphodels, refer to quite different plants coming from wet areas in Lancashire, Scotland and Norway . He calls them pseudoasphodelus major and minor which he writes are called Asphodelus luteus palustris by Dodoens, and not 'King's Spear' which he illustrates with a good woodcut of A. luteus and calls it Asphodelus luteus minor. Once herbals started to be written in northern Europe, the knowledge of the arid loving, Asphodelus luteus of south east Europe was lost. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • M0007306: Manuscript illustration of a physician meeting snakebite patients
  • The Thanatophidia of India : being a description of the venomous snakes of the Indian Peninsula, with an account of the influence of their poison on life, and a series of experiments / by J. Fayrer.
  • The Thanatophidia of India : being a description of the venomous snakes of the Indian Peninsula, with an account of the influence of their poison on life, and a series of experiments / by J. Fayrer.
  • The Thanatophidia of India : being a description of the venomous snakes of the Indian Peninsula, with an account of the influence of their poison on life, and a series of experiments / by J. Fayrer.
  • Six different pieces of sealed, precious medicinal earth known as 'terra sigillata'. Pen drawing.
  • Chinese Materia Dietetica, Ming: Pig trough/urine ditch water
  • Manasā, Indian goddess of snakes and protection against snakebite. Watercolour.
  • First aid for lay people before the doctor arrives. Colour lithograph, ca. 1920.
  • A plant related to birthwort, (Aristolochia longa L.): flowering stem with separate rhizome and sections of fruit. Coloured etching by M. Bouchard, 1774.
  • Ptolemaic pharaoh offering incense to Horus, wall relief
  • A man with a herbal and a jar of theriac: an apothecary or pharmaceutical scholar. Oil painting.
  • A man with a herbal and a jar of theriac: an apothecary or pharmaceutical scholar. Oil painting.
  • A man with a herbal and a jar of theriac: an apothecary or pharmaceutical scholar. Oil painting.
  • A man with a herbal and a jar of theriac: an apothecary or pharmaceutical scholar. Oil painting.
  • Saint Peter. Woodcut after H. Baldung Grien.
  • Saint Peter. Engraving attributed to C. Cort.
  • Wound man, Pseudo-Galen, Anathomia; WMS 290
  • Bencao Gangmu -- C.16 Chinese materia medica, Snakes