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  • Statues of "raving" and "melancholy" madness, each reclining on one half of a pediment, formerly crowning the gates at Bethlem [Bedlam] Hospital. Engraving by A. Birrell, 1813, after T. Stothard, 1783, after C. Cibber, 1680.
  • Statues of "raving" and "melancholy" madness, each reclining on one half of a broken segmental pediment, formerly crowning the gates at Bethlem [Bedlam] Hospital. Engraving by W. Sharp, 1783, after T. Stothard after C. Cibber, 1680.
  • Statues of "raving" and "melancholy" madness, each reclining on one half of a pediment, formerly crowning the gates at Bethlem [Bedlam] Hospital. Engraving in outline by [H.D.], 1816, after T. Stothard, 1783, after C. Cibber, 1680.
  • Borago officinalis L. Boraginaceae. Borage. officinalis indicates it was used in the 'offices' - the consulting clinics - of medieval monks. Distribution: Europe. Culpeper: “... comforts the heart, cheers the spirit, drives away sadness and melancholy, they are rather laxative than binding
  • An authentic narrative of the melancholy occurrences at Bilston ... during the awful visitation ... by cholera, in ... August and September, 1832; to which are added, the proceedings of the local Board of Health, a list of contributors for the relief of the inhabitants, etc / [William Leigh].
  • The anatomy of melancholy : what it is, with all the kinds causes, symptomes, prognostickes, & seuerall cures of it in three partitions, with their severall sections, members & subsections, philosophically, medicinally, historically, opened & cut up / By Democritus Junior [pseud.] With a satyricall preface, conducing to the following discourse.
  • The anatomy of melancholy : what it is with all the kinds, causes, symptons, prognostics & several cures of it / In three partitions with their several sections members & subsections philosophically, medicinally, historically opened & cut up by Democritus Junior [Robert Burton] with a satirical preface conducing to the following discourse.
  • The anatomy of melancholy : what it is. With all the kindes, causes, symptomes, prognosticks, and severall cures of it - in three maine partitions, with their severall sections, members, and subsections / philosophically, medicinally, historically, opened and cut up by Democritus Junior [i.e. Robert Burton] - with a satyricall preface, conducing to the following discourse.
  • Helleborus x hybridus Hort. Ex Vilmorin Ranunculaceae. A range of hybrids from Helleborus orientalis the Oriental hellebore. Distribution: Europe through to the Caucasus. All very poisonous. Culpeper (1650) says: “The roots (boiled in vinegar) ... be an admirable remedy against inveterate scabs, itch and leprosy, the same helps the toothache, being held in the mouth: dropped into the ears, helpeth deafness coming of melancholy and noises in the ears
  • The Indian Nectar, or, A discourse concerning Chocolata : Wherein the Nature of the Cacao-nut, and the other Ingredients of that Composition, is examined, and stated according to the Judgment and Experience of the Indians, and Spanish writers, who lived in the Indies, and others; with sundry additional Observations made in England: The ways of compounding and preparing Chocolata are enquired into; its Effects, as to its alimental and Venereal quality, as well as Medicinal (especially in Hypochondriacal Melancholy) are fully debated. Together with a Spagyrical Analysis of the Cacao-nut, performed by that excellent Chymist, Monsieur le Febure, Chymist to His Majesty. / By Henry Stubbe.
  • The Indian Nectar, or, A discourse concerning Chocolata : Wherein the Nature of the Cacao-nut, and the other Ingredients of that Composition, is examined, and stated according to the Judgment and Experience of the Indians, and Spanish writers, who lived in the Indies, and others; with sundry additional Observations made in England: The ways of compounding and preparing Chocolata are enquired into; its Effects, as to its alimental and Venereal quality, as well as Medicinal (especially in Hypochondriacal Melancholy) are fully debated. Together with a Spagyrical Analysis of the Cacao-nut, performed by that excellent Chymist, Monsieur le Febure, Chymist to His Majesty. / By Henry Stubbe.
  • The displaying of supposed witchcraft. Wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of deceivers and impostors. And divers persons under a passive delusion of melancholy and fancy. But that there is a corporeal league made betwixt the devil and the witch, or that he sucks on the witches body...or the like, is utterly denied and disproved. Wherein also is handled, the existence of angels and spirits, the truth of apparitions...the force of charms, and philters; with other abstruse matters / By John Webster.
  • 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.
  • A treatise of melancholie. Containing the causes thereof, & reasons of the strange effects it worketh in our minds and bodies: with the phisicke cure, and spirituall consolation for such as have thereto adjoyned an afflicted conscience / [Timothie Bright].
  • The melancholic figure of a poet leaning on an inscribed block of stone. Engraving by A.B., 16--, after J. de Ribera, ca. 1620.
  • An elderly man with a skull and an hourglass, representing the misery of old age. Engraving by C.G. Schultze, 1770, after C.-F. Hutin.
  • A skull resting on sheet music. Line engraving with etching by J.F. Mutilana.
  • A woman diagnosed as suffering from melancholia. Lithograph, 1892, after a drawing made for Sir Alexander Morison.
  • A woman diagnosed as suffering from melancholia. Lithograph, 1892, after a drawing made for Sir Alexander Morison.
  • St Luke's Hospital, Cripplegate, London: the interior of the women's ward, with many inmates and a member of staff. Coloured aquatint by J.C. Stadler after A.C. Pugin and T. Rowlandson, 1809.
  • St Luke's Hospital, Cripplegate, London: the interior of the women's ward, with many inmates and a member of staff. Coloured aquatint by J.C. Stadler after A.C. Pugin and T. Rowlandson, 1809.
  • St Luke's Hospital, Cripplegate, London: the interior of the women's ward, with many inmates and a member of staff. Coloured aquatint by J.C. Stadler after A.C. Pugin and T. Rowlandson, 1809.
  • Melancholia: a female figure contemplating a skull, surrounded by attributes of knowledge and learning. Engraving after D. Fetti.
  • A despondent winged woman holding a geometrical instrument surrounded by attributes associated with knowledge; representing melancholia. Heliogravure attributed to C. Amand-Durand, 18--, after A. Dürer, 1514.
  • A despondent winged woman holding a geometrical instrument surrounded by attributes associated with knowledge; representing melancholia. Heliogravure attributed to C. Amand-Durand, 18--, after A. Dürer, 1514.
  • A woman diagnosed as suffering from melancholia with fear, or fear of everything, and with a propensity to attempt suicide. Lithograph, 1892, after a drawing made for Sir Alexander Morison.
  • Profile of a man displaying a choleric-melancholic temperament. Drawing, c. 1792.
  • A woman diagnosed as suffering from melancholia with fear, or fear of everything, and with a propensity to attempt suicide. Lithograph, 1892, after a drawing made for Sir Alexander Morison.
  • Balthasar Bekker and Christian Scriver sieve diseases from devils. Engraving, 1731.