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  • A group of children playing at being doctors and pharmacists, mother and grandmother approach through a door. Photogravure after F.D. Hardy.
  • The male sign incorporating various types and features of condoms; advertisement by the Pharmacists Planning Service for information on sexually transmitted diseases. Lithograph, 1983.
  • Children playing at being doctors and pharmacists, mother and grandmother approach through a door. Mezzotint by W.J. Edwards after F.D. Hardy.
  • Children playing at being doctors and pharmacists, mother and grandmother approach through a door. Mezzotint by W.J. Edwards after F.D. Hardy.
  • A group of children playing at being doctors and pharmacists, mother and grandmother approach through a door. Stipple engraving after F.D. Hardy.
  • A condom called Proud Pete with speech bubbles warning parents to talk to their children about AIDS; advertisement for AIDS hotlines by the Pharmacists Planning Service. Colour lithograph, 1992.
  • Doctors and pharmacists surround a mother with child, proffering medicines; symbolising the difference of ideas concerning change of the Dutch electoral law. Reproduction of a lithograph by J. Braakensiek, 1893.
  • Nandina domestica Thunb. Berberidaceae. Heavenly bamboo. Distribution: Asia. It contains cyanogenic glycosides which liberate hydrogen cyanide when damaged. Nothing eats it. Pharmacists have also found a chemical in the sap, called nantenine, which is a potential antidote to poisoning by ecstasy with which it shares the same molecular shape. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • A centaur advertising "Centaure" tonic wine made of Alpine plants. Colour lithograph.
  • 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.
  • Ephemera: Walter A Walling. Registered pharm
  • An apothecary in his shop, with three customers. Woodcut.
  • An apothecary. Oil painting.
  • Interior of a distilling laboratory with five people at work. Coloured engraving by M. Engelbrecht's workshop, c. 1720.
  • An apothecary in his shop. Wood engraving.
  • A child misunderstanding a chemist. Wood engraving after T. Wilkinson.
  • The gentlemen, farmers, jockies, stage-coachmen and carriers universal medicine in the true cordial horse balls and preparation of antimony, adapted for the use and benefit of all, as well the race as cart horse : the cordial balls ... / Samuel Gibson.
  • The gentlemen, farmers, jockies, stage-coachmen and carriers universal medicine in the true cordial horse balls and preparation of antimony, adapted for the use and benefit of all, as well the race as cart horse : the cordial balls ... / Samuel Gibson.
  • The mystery and art of the apothecary / by C.J.S. Thompson.
  • An apothecary with instruments of his profession seated in an arched window. Lithograph by M. Vernaut after G. Metsu.
  • A child serving behind the counter of a chemists and offering advice to a female customer. Wood engraving.
  • An unscrupulous chemist selling a child arsenic and laudanum. Wood engraving after J. Leech.
  • A surgeon-apothecary pulling out a man's tooth. Oil painting.
  • The mystery and art of the apothecary / by C.J.S. Thompson.
  • An apothecary riding a velocipede (bicycle) in the form of a pestle and mortar. Coloured etching, ca. 1819.
  • A little boy attempting to serve a customer in a pharmacy. Pen drawing, 1846.
  • A surgeon-apothecary pulling out a man's tooth. Oil painting.
  • A little boy attempting to serve a customer in a pharmacy. Pen drawing, 1846.
  • A surgeon-apothecary pulling out a man's tooth. Oil painting.
  • A customer asking for a Christmas box from a dentist that he regularly visits, the dentist retorts he can have a tooth pulled for free. Wood engraving after [L.S.].