Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events
466 results
  • Head mask. Yuruba, Southern Nigeria, W.Africa
  • [Cutting from The London Journal (1853?) titled: 'The earthmen in Southern Africa'. ].
  • Southern Africa: a family of Bushmen cooking grasshoppers. Aquatint by G. Gallina, ca. 1819.
  • Tell your MP: enough fine words! : Enough fine words! Fund the fight against AIDS / ACTSA, Action for Southern Africa ; ActionAid.
  • Tell your MP: enough fine words! : Enough fine words! Fund the fight against AIDS / ACTSA, Action for Southern Africa ; ActionAid.
  • Tell your MP: enough fine words! : Enough fine words! Fund the fight against AIDS / ACTSA, Action for Southern Africa ; ActionAid.
  • Tell your MP: enough fine words! : Enough fine words! Fund the fight against AIDS / ACTSA, Action for Southern Africa ; ActionAid.
  • Khoi people of the Gonaqua kingdom, southern Africa. Aquatint by G. Gallina, ca. 1819, after F. Le Vaillant.
  • Cistus ladanifer L., Cistaceae. Common Gum Cistus or Ladanum/labdanum. Distribution: Southern Europe and N. Africa. The fragrant resin from the sticky leaves, Gum Labdanum, is extracted and used in Mediterranean regions as an insecticide and deodorant ((Lewis & Elvin-Lewis, 2003). Lyte (1578) advises local application to prevent hair loss and cure earache
  • Euphorbia nicaeensis All. Euphorbiaceae. Distribution: North Africa, Southern Europe to Turkey. Root extracts have been shown to have cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory action in experimental situations. Euphorbia species all have toxic sap, and had many names in early literature, eg esula, about which Culpeper (1650) says that '(taken inwardly) are too violent for vulgar use
  • Gloriosa superba L. Colchicaceae Gloriosa lily. Gloriosa rothschildiana is now a synonym. Climbing plant. Distribution: Southern Africa to Asia. National flower of Zimbabwe, state flower of Tamil Nadu. Contains colchicine which is poisonous, teratogenic and used for treating gout, Familial Mediterranean fever and Behcet's disease. Its toxicity limits its use as a anti-cancer agent. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Gloriosa superba L. Colchicaceae Gloriosa lily. Gloriosa rothschildiana is now a synonym. Climbing plant. Distribution: Southern Africa to Asia. National flower of Zimbabwe, state flower of Tamil Nadu. Contains colchicine which is poisonous, teratogenic and used for treating gout, Familial Mediterranean fever and Behcet's disease. Its toxicity limits its use as a anti-cancer agent. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Cynoglossum officinale L. Boraginaceae. Houndstongue. Distribution: Europe. Culpeper (1650) writes: “... being roasted and laid to the fundament, helps the haemorrhoids. It is also good against burnings and scaldings.” It contains hepatocarcinogenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids and while people are known to eat the young leaves as a vegetable, this is inadvisable. The whole plant is hairy and may cause contact dermatitis. The use of herbal remedies, which contain these alkaloids, by the Bantu of southern Africa correlates with their high incidence of tumours of the liver and pancreas. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Scabiosa columbaria L. Dipsacaceae. Small scabious. Distribution: Europe. Culpeper (1650) writes: ‘The roots either boiled or beaten into powder and so taken, helps such as are extremely troubled with scabs and itch, are medicinal in the French-pocks [syphilis], hard swellings, inward wounds ...’ The genus name comes from the Latin word scabies, meaning ‘itch’. According to the Doctrine of Signatures, the rough leaves indicated that it would cure eczematous skin. However, the leaves are not really very rough... Not used in herbal medicine at the present time except in Southern Africa where it is used for colic and heartburn, and the roots made into an ointment for curing wounds (van Wyk, 2000). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • South Africa: Hercules Robinson, Governor of the Cape Colony and High Commissioner of South Africa. 1896.
  • South Africa: Howick Falls. 1896.
  • Wellcome Packing Plant, South Africa
  • South Africa: Mrs Perkins. 1896.
  • Shindinu rain shrine, Bari, South Africa
  • South Africa: Mrs Frank Lowry. 1896.
  • South Africa: Natal people eating. Albumen print.
  • South Africa: armed South African men guarding the road to Pretoria. 1896.
  • Bushman painting showing lion hunt, South Africa.
  • Temporary Hospital at Renzskie's farm, South Africa
  • South Africa: Government House at Maritzburg. 1896.
  • An antelope from South Africa. Wood engraving.
  • South Africa: Mrs Nea Robinson, wife of Hercules Robinson, Governor of the Cape Colony and High Commissioner of South Africa. 1896.
  • Cynara cardunculus L. Asteraceae. Cardoon, Globe Artichoke, Artechokes, Scolymos cinara, Cynara, Cinara. Distribution: Southern Europe and North Africa. Lyte (1576) writes that Dodoens (1552) could find no medical use for them and Galen (c.200 AD) said they were indigestible unless cooked. However, he relates that other authors recommend that if the flower heads are soaked in strong wine, they 'provoke urine and stir up lust in the body.' More prosaically, the roots boiled in wine and drunk it cause the urine to be 'stinking' and so cures smelly armpits. He adds that it strengthens the stomach so causing women to conceive Male children. He goes on to say that the young shoots boiled in broth also stir up lust in men and women, and more besides. Lyte (1576) was translating, I think with elaborations, from the chapter on Scolymos cinara, Artichaut, in Dodoen's Croydeboeck (1552) as L'Ecluse's French translation, Dodoens Histoire des Plantes (1575) does not mention these latter uses, but Dodoen's own Latin translation, the Pemptades (1583), and Gerard's Herbal (1633) both do so. It is useful in understanding the history of these translations to realise that Gerard uses, almost verbatim, the translation of the 'smelly armpit' paragraph from Lyte. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Cynara cardunculus L. Asteraceae. Cardoon, Globe Artichoke, Artechokes, Scolymos cinara, Cynara, Cinara. Distribution: Southern Europe and North Africa. Lyte (1576) writes that Dodoens (1552) could find no medical use for them and Galen (c.200 AD) said they were indigestible unless cooked. However he relates that other authors recommend that if the flower heads are soaked in strong wine, they 'provoke urine and stir up lust in the body.' More prosaically, the roots boiled in wine and drunk it cause the urine to be 'stinking' and so cures smelly armpits. He adds that it strengthens the stomach so causing women to conceive Male children. He goes on to say that the young shoots boiled in broth also stir up lust in men and women, and more besides. Lyte (1576) was translating, I think with elaborations, from the chapter on Scolymos cinara, Artichaut, in Dodoen's Croydeboeck (1552) as L'Ecluse's French translation (1575) does not mention these latter uses, but Dodoen's own Latin translation, the Pemptades(1583), and Gerard's (1633) both do so. It is useful in understanding the history of these translations to realise that Gerard uses, almost verbatim, the translation of the 'smelly armpit' paragraph from Lyte. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Natal, South Africa: traditional kraal huts. Albumen print.