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  • C14 Chinese medication chart: Sweating, emesis and purgation
  • An American soldier sweating with fear about contracting a sexually transmitted disease; warning American servicemen to use condoms. Colour lithograph, 194-.
  • Wrapped in "sweating" blankets and close to the fire Moll Hackabout nears death as two doctors argue. Engraving by William Hogarth.
  • Naked men in a shower with a message about sweating, syringes and safe sex. Lithograph for Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe e.V.
  • Wrapped in "sweating" blankets and close to the fire, Moll Hackabout nears death as the doctors argue over her illness. Engraving after William Hogarth.
  • Tom Ruby being tricked by six friends into thinking he is suffering from the 'sweating sickness', thereby missing his feast. Coloured line engraving, 1799, after Nixon (?).
  • John Rigg, cupper : at the Hummums in the Little Piazza Covent-Garden, with a back door from Charles-Street where gentlemen only may be always accommodated (if not full) in the best and neatest manner with lodging, sweating, bathing, or cupping.
  • Tanacetum cinerariifolium Sch.Blp. Asteraceae Dalmation chrysanthemum, Pyrethrum, Pellitory, Tansy. Distribution: Balkans. Source of the insecticides called pyrethrins. The Physicians of Myddfai in the 13th century used it for toothache. Gerard called it Pyrethrum officinare, Pellitorie of Spain but mentions no insecticidal use, mostly for 'palsies', agues, epilepsy, headaches, to induce salivation, and applied to the skin, to induce sweating. He advised surgeons to use it to make a cream against the Morbum Neopolitanum [syphilis]. However he also describes Tanacetum or Tansy quite separately.. Quincy (1718) gave the same uses
  • Bioengineered sweat gland, conceptual artwork
  • Spiral sweat ducts in skin on the sole of a foot
  • A 'Yebichai Sweat' Navajo medicine ceremony. Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1904.
  • Aconitum carmichaelii Debeaux. Ranunculaceae. Chinese aconite, Chinese wolfsbane, Carmichael's monkshood. Herbaceous perennial. Distribution C. to W. China to N. America. Named for Dr J.R. Carmichael (d. 1877), English physician, plant collector and Protestant missionary from 1862-1877 in Guangdong and Shandong, China initially in Canton. He aided Francis Forbes to collect plants for Kew. Aconitum plants are so poisonous that Theophrastus states that death was the punishment for possessing them. Aconitine is the poison and was used - from Aconitum ferox - in the 'curry murder' in London in 2009. It causes respiratory paralysis, bradycardia (slowing of the pulse), cardiac arrhythmias, tingling, sweating, gastric cramps, diarrhoea and death, both by ingestion and by absorption through the mucous membranes and the skin. Despite this it is widely used in Chinese herbal medicine. It is a restricted herbal medicine which can only be dispensed by a herbal practitioner for external use following a one-to-one consultation, or by prescription from a registered doctor or dentist (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • A 'Yebichai Sweat' Navajo medicine ceremony: three Navajos in ceremonial dress with faces masked. Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1904.
  • A 'Yebichai Sweat' Navajo medicine ceremony: three Navajos in ceremonial dress with faces masked. Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, 1904.
  • A boke, or counseill against the disease commonly called the sweate, or sweatying sicknesse. Very necessary for everye personne, and muche requisite to be had in the handes of al sortes, for their better instruction, preparacion and defence, against the soubdein comyng, and fearful assaultying of the same disease / [John Caius].
  • A boke, or counseill against the disease commonly called the sweate, or sweatying sicknesse. Very necessary for everye personne, and muche requisite to be had in the handes of al sortes, for their better instruction, preparacion and defence, against the soubdein comyng, and fearful assaultying of the same disease / [John Caius].
  • A boke, or counseill against the disease commonly called the sweate, or sweatying sicknesse. Very necessary for everye personne, and muche requisite to be had in the handes of al sortes, for their better instruction, preparacion and defence, against the soubdein comyng, and fearful assaultying of the same disease / [John Caius].
  • Atropa belladonna L. Solanaceae. Deadly nightshade. Dwale. Morella, Solatrum, Hound's berries, Uva lupina, Cucubalus, Solanum lethale. Atropa derives from Atropos the oldest of the three Fates of Greek mythology who cut the thread of Life (her sisters Clotho and Lachesis spun and measured the thread, respectively). belladonna, literally, means 'beautiful lady' and was the Italian name for it. Folklore has it that Italian ladies put drops from the plant or the fruits in their eyes to make themselves doe-eyed, myopic and beautiful. However, this is not supported by the 16th and 17th century literature, where no mention is ever made of dilated pupils (or any of the effects of parasympathetic blockade). Tournefort (1719) says 'The Italians named this plant Belladonna, which in their language signifies a beautiful woman, because the ladies use it much in the composition of their Fucus [rouge or deceit or cosmetic] or face paint.' Parkinson says that the Italian ladies use the distilled juice as a fucus '... peradventure [perhaps] to take away their high colour and make them looke paler.' I think it more likely that they absorbed atropine through their skin and were slightly 'stoned' and disinhibited, which made them beautiful ladies in the eyes of Italian males. Distribution: Europe, North Africa, western Asia. Culpeper (1650) writes: 'Solanum. Nightshade: very cold and dry, binding … dangerous given inwardly … outwardly it helps the shingles, St Antonie's Fire [erysipelas] and other hot inflammation.' Most of the 16th, 17th and 18th century herbals recommend it topically for breast cancers. Poisonous plants were regarded as 'cold' plants as an excess of them caused death and the body became cold. They were regarded as opposing the hot humour which kept us warm and alive. Poultices of Belladonna leaves are still recommended for muscle strain in cyclists, by herbalists. Gerard (1633) writes that it: 'causeth sleep, troubleth the mind, bringeth madnesse if a few of the berries be inwardly taken, but if more be taken they also kill...'. He was also aware that the alkaloids could be absorbed through the skin for he notes that a poultice of the leaves applied to the forehead, induces sleep, and relieves headache. The whole plant contains the anticholinergic alkaloid atropine, which blocks the peripheral actions of acetylcholine in the parasympathetic nervous system. Atropine is a racemic mixture of d- and l- hyoscyamine. Atropine, dropped into the eyes, blocks the acetylcholine receptors of the pupil so it no longer constricts on exposure to bright light - so enabling an ophthalmologist to examine the retina with an ophthalmoscope. Atropine speeds up the heart rate, reduces salivation and sweating, reduces gut motility, inhibits the vertigo of sea sickness, and is used to block the acetylcholine receptors to prevent the effects of organophosphorous and other nerve gas poisons. It is still has important uses in medicine. Atropine poisoning takes three or for days to wear off, and the hallucinations experienced by its use are described as unpleasant. We have to be content with 'madness', 'frenzie' and 'idle and vain imaginations' in the early herbals to describe the hallucinations of atropine and related alkaloids as the word 'hallucination' in the sense of a perception for which there is no external stimulus, was not used in English until 1646 (Sir T. Browne, 1646). It is a restricted herbal medicine which can only be sold in premises which are registered pharmacies and by or under the supervision of a pharmacist (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Dr. Scholl's Foot Powder : 1/6 per canister : for hot tender perspiring feet.
  • Thomas Rowlandson, Caricature
  • Advert for safe sex by Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe
  • Amaranthus spinosus L.: flowering stem with separate root and floral segments. Coloured etching by M. Bouchard, 177-.
  • Mecca balsam (Commiphora opobalsamum): entire young plant. Line engraving by J. Heath, c. 1804.
  • Theory of diseases treated with cassia twig & monkshood root
  • Theory of diseases treated with decoction of Radix Puerariae
  • C14 Chinese medication chart: Beri-beri etc.
  • A young man returning from the hunt; representing the season spring. Engraving after Joachim von Sandrart I, ca. 1700.
  • Theory of diseases treated with cassia twig decoction
  • Male black widow spider (Latrodectus hesperus) molting
  • Chinese Materia Medica illustration, Ming: Dragon bone