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  • A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson.
  • A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson.
  • A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson.
  • A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson.
  • A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson.
  • Fleta minor. The laws of art and nature in knowing, judging, assaying, fining, refining and inlarging the bodies of confin'd metals. In two parts. The first contains essays of Lazarus Erckern ... in V books: originally written by him in the Teutonick language, and now translated into English. The second contains essays on metallick words, as a dictionary to many pleasing discourses by Sir John Pettus ... Illustrated with 44 sculptures ... / [Sir John Pettus].
  • Fleta minor. The laws of art and nature in knowing, judging, assaying, fining, refining and inlarging the bodies of confin'd metals. In two parts. The first contains essays of Lazarus Erckern ... in V books: originally written by him in the Teutonick language, and now translated into English. The second contains essays on metallick words, as a dictionary to many pleasing discourses by Sir John Pettus ... Illustrated with 44 sculptures ... / [Sir John Pettus].
  • Fleta minor. The laws of art and nature in knowing, judging, assaying, fining, refining and inlarging the bodies of confin'd metals. In two parts. The first contains essays of Lazarus Erckern ... in V books: originally written by him in the Teutonick language, and now translated into English. The second contains essays on metallick words, as a dictionary to many pleasing discourses by Sir John Pettus ... Illustrated with 44 sculptures ... / [Sir John Pettus].
  • 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.
  • A father puts his arm around his son who reads a book while a mother holding a cup comforts her daughter; an AIDS prevention advertisement aimed at families for the NGO AIDS Cell Centre for Community Medicine in New Delhi. Colour lithograph by N.R. Nanda, ca. March 1994.
  • A message about how AIDS spreads with the word 'AIDS' in letters with red blood vessel-like roots; an AIDS prevention advertisement for the NGO AIDS Cell Centre for Community Medicine in New Delhi. Colour lithograph, ca. December 1993.
  • A message about how AIDS spreads with the word 'AIDS' in letters with red blood vessel-like roots; an AIDS prevention advertisement for the NGO AIDS Cell Centre for Community Medicine in New Delhi. Colour lithograph, ca. December 1993.
  • A sunflower, a symbol of bringing life back by giving blood; an AIDS prevention advertisement by the AIIMS Blood Transfusion Service and NGO AIDS Cell, New Delhi. Colour lithograph by N.R. Nanda, ca. January 1994.
  • A couple just married outside a church, a butterfly emblem symbolising a Hindu wedding, and a mosque with a prayer book and two bearded men with the warning of no sex before or outside marriage; an AIDS prevention advertisement for families by GAP-SIRMCE. Colour lithograph, ca. 1996.
  • Buildings and plant for producing saltpetre. Watercolour by A. Kroll, 1806.
  • Buildings and plant for producing saltpetre. Watercolour by A. Kroll, 1806.
  • A wizard and his accomplice performing incantations in a forest during a full moon. Etching by S. Palmer and A.H. Palmer.
  • A wizard and his accomplice performing incantations in a forest during a full moon. Etching by S. Palmer and A.H. Palmer.
  • A wizard and his accomplice performing incantations in a forest during a full moon. Etching by S. Palmer and A.H. Palmer.