Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events
195 results
  • Vomiting and sickness, artwork
  • C14 Chinese medication chart: Vomiting, coughing etc.
  • Bulletin. No. 29, Vomiting in pregnancy / Clinical Department of The Vibrator Instrument Company.
  • Bulletin. No. 29, Vomiting in pregnancy / Clinical Department of The Vibrator Instrument Company.
  • Witchcraft: a bewitched woman vomiting. Woodcut, 1720.
  • An ill man seated by a fireplace vomiting into a bowl. Pencil drawing.
  • A woman holding the head of a man who is vomiting. Gouache painting by S.W. Kelly, 1936.
  • Men drinking, vomiting and collapsing around a tavern table. Etching by J. Le Poutre, 17th century, after himself.
  • A drunk young man vomiting outside a social gathering. Colour lithograph for Nationaal Instituut voor Gezondheidsbevordering en Ziektepreventie, ca. 2000.
  • A woman holding her stomach and vomiting into a bucket after self administering an emetic. Coloured etching by I. Cruikshank, 1800.
  • A woman holding her stomach and vomiting into a bucket after self administering an emetic. Coloured etching by I. Cruikshank, 1800.
  • A peasant man sits on a tree stump vomiting and onlookers hold their noses, with an accompanying couplet. Etching, 17th century.
  • A man vomiting after overeating and drinking; representing the sense of touch. Engraving by J.J. Kleinschmidt after Jan van de Velde the younger.
  • A man vomiting and with diarrhoea owing to infected water; and four scenes related to the results of water infection. Colour lithograph, 1952 (?).
  • Largactil : anaesthesia, psychiatry, nausea and vomiting, pain... : Phenergan promethazine, a phenothiazine derivative unique in its action : pruritis motion sickness, insomnia, drug sensitization, pre-operative tension, Parkinsonism / Poulenc Limited.
  • Larevellière-Lépeaux sits in a disordered quack doctor's room, in the presence of seven wounded French generals, one of them vomiting; representing French defeats in 1799 and Bonaparte's failed imperial ambitions in the east. Coloured etching by J. Gillray, 1799.
  • Aralia spinosa L. Araliaceae. Devil's walking stick, Prickly ash, Hercules' club. Tree. Distribution: Eastern North America. Contact with sap causes skin irritation, raw berries mildly toxic to humans, causing diarrhoea and vomiting. Eaten by bears. Used medicinally by Native Americans for a variety of conditions. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Skimmia japonica Thunb. Rutaceae 'Rubella' Distribution: China, Japan and E. Asia. The genus name is derived from the Japanese word shikimi (Stearn, 1994). All parts of the plant are poisonous, containing skimmianin. It is said to cause vomiting and, if eaten in large quantities, cardiac arrest. (Duke, 1985) Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Ornithogalum umbellatum L. Hyacinthaceae Star of Bethlehem, Grass lily. Distribution: Central Europe, SW Asia, NW Africa. All parts are poisonous, especially the bulbs. The toxin is a cardiac glycoside with effects similar to digoxin, vomiting, cardiac irregularities and death in humans and livestock. Only used for decoration by Native Americans (it is a non-native plant that has escaped into the wild from cultivation) and called Sleepydick (Moerman, 1998). One of its toxins is Convallotoxin, also present in Lily of the Valley, Convallaria majalis. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Polygonum bistorta L. Polygonaceae Bistort, snakeweed, Easter Ledges. Distribution: Europe, N & W Asia. Culpeper: “... taken inwardly resist pestilence and poison, helps ruptures, and bruises, stays fluxes, vomiting and immoderate flowing of the terms in women, helps inflammations and soreness of the mouth, and fastens loose teeth, being bruised and boiled in white wine and the mouth washed with it.” In modern herbal medicine it is still used for a similar wide variety of internal conditions, but it can also be cooked and eaten as a vegetable. The use to relieve toothache, applied as a paste to the affected tooth, seems to have been widespread. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Illicium anisatum L. Illiciaceae Japanese Star Anise. Distribution Japan. This was also called Illicium religiosum and the fruits are toxic. Effects of taking Illicium anisatum tea include epilepsy, vomiting, shakiness and rapid eye movements (US Food and Drug Administration report, 2003). Lindley (1838) and Bentley (1861) thought that I. anisatum was used in cooking, but they were describing the uses of I. verum which is used as a spice in Asia. Illicium anisatum syn. religiosum is 'used to make incense in Japanese and Chinese temples and was called Skimi by Kaempfer. This derives from the Japanese word 'shi-kimi'. The seed pods of both species contain shikimic acid (the name being derived from the Japanese) from which Tamiflu, the antiviral drug was synthesised. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Epimedium pubescens Maxim. Berberidaceae. Horny (sic) Goat Weed. Distribution: China. Marketed as an aphrodisiac, with the ability to act like sildenafil and for osteoporosis. Side effects reported include dizziness, dry mouth, vomiting and cardiac irregularity. It is not listed in Wiart (2006) or Wichtl (1994). Its reputation began, apparently, when a Chinese farmer observed increased sexual activity in his goats after they had been eating Epimedium. Given the enormous profits made by medicines such as sildenafil, it is indicative of its therapeutic value that it has not been taken up by a pharmaceutical company. Poor absorption from the gut and lack of information on toxicity may be responsible. It is not licensed for sale in the UK as a Traditional Herbal Remedy (Traditional Herbal Medicines Registration, January 2013) and has not been assessed or approved by the European Medicines Agency's Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPC). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • A trio of quack doctors attending to Britannia: the Earl of Bute with an ass's head blindfolds a woman who is vomiting into a bowl held by Louis XV as a baboon: Tobias Smollett takes her pulse;while Henry Fox approaches her with a clyster-pipe; representing the loss of British assets to France in the Treaty of Paris. Etching attributed to Paul Sandby, 1762.
  • Veratrum nigrum L. Melanthiaceae Distribution: Europe. Cows do not eat Veratrum species in the meadows, and human poisoning with it caused vomiting and fainting. In the 1850s it was found to reduce the heart's action and slow the pulse (Bentley, 1861, called it an 'arterial sedative'), and in 1859 it was used orally in a woman who was having convulsions due to eclampsia. Dr Paul DeLacy Baker in Alabama treated her with drops of a tincture of V. viride. She recovered. It was used thereafter, as the first choice of treatment, and, when blood pressure monitoring became possible, it was discovered that it worked by reducing the high blood pressure that occurs in eclampsia. By 1947 death rates were reduced from 30% to 5% by its use at the Boston Lying-in Hospital. It works by dilating the arteries in muscles and in the gastrointestinal circulation. A further use of Veratrum species came to light when it was noted that V. californicum - and other species - if eaten by sheep resulted in foetal malformations, in particular only having one eye. The chemical in the plant that was responsible, cyclopamine, was found to act on certain genetic pathways responsible for stem cell division in the regulation of the development of bilateral symmetry in the embryo/foetus. Synthetic analogues have been developed which act on what have come to be called the 'hedgehog signalling pathways' in stem cell division, and these 'Hedgehog inhibitors' are being introduced into medicine for the treatment of various cancers like chondrosarcoma, myelofibrosis, and advanced basal cell carcinoma. The drugs are saridegib, erismodegib and vismodegib. All the early herbals report on its ability to cause vomiting. As a herbal medicine it is Prescription Only, via a registered dentist or physician (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Veratrum album L. Melanthiaceae Distribution: Europe. Cows do not eat Veratrum species in the meadows, and human poisoning with it caused vomiting and fainting. In the 1850s it was found to reduce the heart's action and slow the pulse (Bentley, 1861, called it an 'arterial sedative'), and in 1859 it was used orally in a woman who was having convulsions due to eclampsia. Dr Paul DeLacy Baker in Alabama treated her with drops of a tincture of V. viride. She recovered. It was used thereafter, as the first choice of treatment, and when blood pressure monitoring became possible, it was discovered that it worked by reducing the high blood pressure that occurs in eclampsia. By 1947 death rates were reduced from 30% to 5% by its use at the Boston Lying in Hospital. It works by dilating the arteries in muscles and in the gastrointestinal circulation. A further use of Veratrum species came to light when it was noted that V. californicum -and other species - if eaten by sheep resulted in foetal malformations, in particular only having one eye. The chemical in the plant that was responsible, cyclopamine, was found to act on certain genetic pathways responsible for stem cell division in the regulation of the development of bilateral symmetry in the embryo/foetus. Synthetic analogues have been developed which act on what have come to be called the 'hedgehog signalling pathways' in stem cell division, and these 'Hedgehog inhibitors' are being introduced into medicine for the treatment of various cancers like chondrosarcoma, myelofibrosis, and advanced basal cell carcinoma. The drugs are saridegib, erismodegib and vismodegib. All the early herbals report on its ability to cause vomiting. As a herbal medicine it is Prescription Only, via a registered dentist or physician (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • A doctor waiting for his patient to vomit after administering an emetic. Coloured aquatint by G.M. Woodward, 1800.
  • A king sits drinking at a table surrounded by revelling courtiers and a man about to vomit. Engraving after J. Jordaens, c. 1640.
  • Four men watch, some holding their noses, as a man vomits; representing the sense of smell. Pen and ink drawing by P. Boone, 1651.
  • Jason being vomited from the dragon of Colchis's mouth after it had received a drug from Athena. Gouache painting by S.W. Kelly, 1936.
  • Two peasants sit at a table as a third man vomits on the floor. Etching by D. Deuchar, 1784, after A. van Ostade (?).