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  • Sketches towards a Hortus botanicus americanus, or, Coloured plates (with a catalogue and concise and familiar descriptions of many species) of new and valuable plants of the West Indies and North and South America : Also of several others, natives of Africa and the East Indies; arranged after the Linnaean system.
  • Sketches towards a Hortus botanicus americanus, or, Coloured plates (with a catalogue and concise and familiar descriptions of many species) of new and valuable plants of the West Indies and North and South America : Also of several others, natives of Africa and the East Indies; arranged after the Linnaean system.
  • Sketches towards a Hortus botanicus americanus, or, Coloured plates (with a catalogue and concise and familiar descriptions of many species) of new and valuable plants of the West Indies and North and South America : Also of several others, natives of Africa and the East Indies; arranged after the Linnaean system.
  • Sketches towards a Hortus botanicus americanus, or, Coloured plates (with a catalogue and concise and familiar descriptions of many species) of new and valuable plants of the West Indies and North and South America : Also of several others, natives of Africa and the East Indies; arranged after the Linnaean system.
  • Sketches towards a Hortus botanicus americanus, or, Coloured plates (with a catalogue and concise and familiar descriptions of many species) of new and valuable plants of the West Indies and North and South America : Also of several others, natives of Africa and the East Indies; arranged after the Linnaean system.
  • Sketches towards a Hortus botanicus americanus, or, Coloured plates (with a catalogue and concise and familiar descriptions of many species) of new and valuable plants of the West Indies and North and South America : Also of several others, natives of Africa and the East Indies; arranged after the Linnaean system.
  • Sketches towards a Hortus botanicus americanus, or, Coloured plates (with a catalogue and concise and familiar descriptions of many species) of new and valuable plants of the West Indies and North and South America : Also of several others, natives of Africa and the East Indies; arranged after the Linnaean system.
  • Sketches towards a Hortus botanicus americanus, or, Coloured plates (with a catalogue and concise and familiar descriptions of many species) of new and valuable plants of the West Indies and North and South America : Also of several others, natives of Africa and the East Indies; arranged after the Linnaean system.
  • Sketches towards a Hortus botanicus americanus, or, Coloured plates (with a catalogue and concise and familiar descriptions of many species) of new and valuable plants of the West Indies and North and South America : Also of several others, natives of Africa and the East Indies; arranged after the Linnaean system.
  • Sketches towards a Hortus botanicus americanus, or, Coloured plates (with a catalogue and concise and familiar descriptions of many species) of new and valuable plants of the West Indies and North and South America : Also of several others, natives of Africa and the East Indies; arranged after the Linnaean system.
  • Sketches towards a Hortus botanicus americanus, or, Coloured plates (with a catalogue and concise and familiar descriptions of many species) of new and valuable plants of the West Indies and North and South America : Also of several others, natives of Africa and the East Indies; arranged after the Linnaean system.
  • Yoruba Ibedji (effigies) representing dead twins, Nigeria, West Africa. Some Yoruba tribes revere twins, who are thought to bring luck to household and tribe. The death of one is a great calamity. A wooden figure, called Ibedji, is made to house the spirit of the dead child and be a companion for the surviving twin. The Ibedji figure becomes a cult-object in the family and the mother tends it, offers it food and decks it with beads, cowrie shells, red camwood and other adornments.
  • I've tested. I know : By knowing your HIV status you can make the right choices : HIV counselling and testing is available FREE at your local clinic / West Cape Provincial Department of Health.
  • I've tested. I know : By knowing your HIV status you can make the right choices : HIV counselling and testing is available FREE at your local clinic / West Cape Provincial Department of Health.
  • 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.
  • African people of the Camma tribe dancing by the light of a fire. Wood engraving.
  • Britannia pointing to Sanatogen, Formamint, and German colonies in Africa and the East Indies as new British possessions. Colour process print after E.F. Skinner.
  • Bronze Benin head, Nigeria
  • Two steatopyous figures said to represent Dahomey pygmies,
  • 6 toothbrushes, primitive and modern.
  • Female head with elaborate coiffure
  • Female head with elaborate coiffure
  • Above, Governor Wall hanging on a gibbet with a cloth over his head; below, Governor Wall ordering the flogging of a naked man who is tied to a block. Etching.
  • Slave ships on the ocean. Wood engraving by Smyth, 1858.
  • Hospital for African trypanosomiasis
  • Wooden bed behind wooden frame in Bathurst, Gambia. Photograph, c. 1911.
  • Yonnibana, Sierra Leone. Photograph, c. 1911.
  • A street in Freetown, Sierra Leone: the buildings separated from the street by a ditch, with a wooden plank to connect them. Photograph, c. 1911.
  • Men with cattle, pulling a cart with an incinerator on it. Photograph, c. 1911.
  • Water supply. Photograph, c. 1911.