Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Skip to main content
60 results
  • South-East Asia: map with details of the spread of AIDS. Colour lithograph, 1994.
  • Four Kenyan shaman or medicine men dressed in ceremonial costume, South east Asia. Halftone.
  • Men sitting at desks with speakers representing a World Health Organization meeting about AIDS prevention programmes in South-East Asia with a list of support activities provided by the organization. Colour lithograph, ca. 1995.
  • Prunus mume Siebold & Zucc. Rosaceae Chinese Plum, Japanese Apricot. Distribution: Eastern Asia. The fruit is used to flavour alcohol and used as a digestive to improve appetite. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Rhodiola rosea L. Crassulaceae Golden root, roseroot Distribution: Arctic, Eastern North America, mountains of central Asia. Herbalists regard it as having curative properties for diseases as diverse as cancer, influenza, depression and other conditions. It has not been licensed for use in manufactured herbal medicines in the UK. 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.
  • Abelia x grandiflora R.Br. Caprifoliaceae. Distribution (A. chinensis R.Br. × A. uniflora R.Br.). Mexico, Himalayas to Eastern Asia. Ornamental flowering shrub. The name celebrates the short life of Dr Clarke Abel FRS (1789-1826), one of the first European botanists to collect in China, which he did when attached as physician to the Canton embassy in 1816-17. It has no medicinal uses but is a popular ornamental shrub in the honeysuckle family because it attracts butterflies and has a long flowering period. From June to October it produces a profusion of small, fragrant, pink-flushed, white flowers on long, arching branches. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Vicia faba L. Fabaceae. Broad beans, Fava bean. Distribution: N. Africa, SW Asia. Culpeper (1650) writes: 'Fabarum. Of Beans. Of Bean Cods (or Pods as we in Sussex call them) being burned, the ashes are a sovereign remedy for aches in the joints, old bruises, gout and sciaticaes.’ The beans are perfectly edible for the majority, but 1% of Caucasians, predominantly among Greeks, Italians and people from the Eastern Mediterranean regions, have a genetic trait in that they lack the ability to produce the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. As a consequence, eating broad beans or even inhaling the pollen, causes a severe haemolytic anaemia a few days later. This condition is known as favism. The whole plant, including the beans, contains levodopa, a precursor of dopamine, and some patients with Parkinsonism report symptomatic improvement after commencing on a diet that contains these beans regularly. A case of neuroleptic malignant-like syndrome (fever, rigidity, autonomic instability, altered consciousness, elevated creatine phosphokinase levels) consequent on abrupt discontinuation of a diet containing plenty of broad beans, has been described in a patient with Parkinsonism. This is usually seen when patients abruptly discontinue L-dopa therapy. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Two zebus grazing near a river with a temple in the background. Coloured lithograph.
  • Russo-Japanese War: Red Cross nurses attending war casualties in a Japanese hospital; right, a European (?) man in formal military dress is standing to attention and facing right. Coloured woodcut, ca. 1904.
  • Russo-Japanese War: two Red Cross officers with a wounded Japanese soldier; in the foreground, a bamboo pole surmounted by the Red Cross flag is tied to a dead tree. Coloured woodcut, 1904.
  • Russo-Japanese War: members of the Japanese Red Cross attending to wounded Russian soldiers; inset above, two Russian soldiers attacking a Japanese woman and child. Coloured woodcut, ca. 1904.
  • Russo-Japanese War: the Russian tsar visits an admiral in hospital; the admiral's head appears as a bandaged ship. Coloured woodcut, 1904.
  • Asarum canadense (Wild ginger)
  • Diagram of a skull.
  • Chinese diagram of human body, handwritten letter in English.
  • Diagram of the human body.
  • Diagram of a skeleton.
  • Diagram of a skull and skeleton.
  • Sir Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak. Photograph by Bassano.
  • Acupuncture Figure
  • Acupuncture Figure
  • Acupuncture Figure
  • Acupuncture Figure
  • Phalaenopsis, Orchidaceae
  • Tobacco and betel nut chewing symptoms in Uganda. Colour lithograph by the Ministry of Health and WHO, ca. 2000.
  • Stink bug
  • Brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys)
  • Takow harbour (Takao, Kaohsiung), Formosa [Taiwan]. Photograph by John Thomson, 1871.
  • Takow harbour (Takao, Kaohsiung), Formosa [Taiwan]. Photograph by John Thomson, 1871.