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  • A collection of 'anti-boche' - ie. anti-German - medicine bottles, next to a scorpion about to be pulverised. Lithograph.
  • Aconitum carmichaelii Debeaux. Ranunculaceae. Chinese aconite, Chinese wolfsbane, Carmichael's monkshood. Herbaceous perennial. Distribution C. to W. China to N. America. Named for Dr J.R. Carmichael (d. 1877), English physician, plant collector and Protestant missionary from 1862-1877 in Guangdong and Shandong, China initially in Canton. He aided Francis Forbes to collect plants for Kew. Aconitum plants are so poisonous that Theophrastus states that death was the punishment for possessing them. Aconitine is the poison and was used - from Aconitum ferox - in the 'curry murder' in London in 2009. It causes respiratory paralysis, bradycardia (slowing of the pulse), cardiac arrhythmias, tingling, sweating, gastric cramps, diarrhoea and death, both by ingestion and by absorption through the mucous membranes and the skin. Despite this it is widely used in Chinese herbal medicine. It is a restricted herbal medicine which can only be dispensed by a herbal practitioner for external use following a one-to-one consultation, or by prescription from a registered doctor or dentist (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Eranthis hyemalis Salisb. Ranunculaceae Winter Aconite Distribution: Europe. The reason it was called Winter aconite and linked to Aconitum napellus as being just as poisonous is because plants were classified according to leaf shape in the 16th century. L'Obel's Stirpium adversaria nova (1571) and Plantarum seu stirpium historia (1576) (with a full page illustration on page 384 showing Eranthis and Aconitum together) along with the knowledge that related plants have similar medical properties caused the belief that Eranthis are as poisonous as Aconitum. They are both in Ranunculaceae and while Eranthis (like all Ranunculaceae)is toxic if eaten, it does not contain the same chemicals as Aconitum. Caesalpino (Ekphrasis, 1616) pointed out the error in classifying according to leaf shape and recommended flower shape. It contains pharmacologically interesting chemicals such as khellin, also present in Ammi visnaga. This is a vasodilator but quite toxic, but can be converted into khellin analogues such as sodium cromoglicate – used as a prophylaxis against asthma attacks – and amiodarone which has anti-arrhythmia actions so is used for atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias. It is endangered and protected in the wild (Croatia) because of over-collecting for horticulture. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Eranthis hyemalis Salisb. Ranunculaceae Winter Aconite Distribution: Europe. The reason it was called Winter aconite and linked to Aconitum napellus as being just as poisonous is because plants were classified according to leaf shape in the 16th century. L'Obel's 'Stirpium adversaria nova' published in 1571 and 'Plantarum seu stirpium historia' published 1576 (with a full page illustration on page 384 showing Eranthis and Aconitum together) along with the knowledge that related plants have similar medical properties caused the belief that Eranthis are as poisonous as Aconitum. They are both in Ranunculaceae and while Eranthis (like all Ranunculaceae) is toxic if eaten, it does not contain the same chemicals as Aconitum. Caesalpino (Ekphrasis, 1616) pointed out the error in classifying according to leaf shape and recommended flower shape. It contains pharmacologically interesting chemicals such as khellin, also present in Ammi visnaga. This is a vasodilator but quite toxic, which can be converted into khellin analogues such as sodium cromoglicate – used as a prophylaxis against asthma attacks – and amiodarone which has anti-arrhythmia actions so is used for atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias. It is endangered and protected in the wild (Croatia) because of over-collecting for horticulture. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Jean Sylvain Bailly, Mayor of Paris, with his mistress, both represented as chickens. Etching, 1791.
  • Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, Wigmore Street, London: the galleried Hall of Statuary. Photograph.
  • Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, Wigmore Street, London: the galleried Hall of Statuary. Photograph.
  • Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, Wigmore Street, London: a head-hunter's hut, south east New Guinea, in the Hall of Primitive Medicine. Photograph.
  • Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, Wigmore Street, London: a head-hunter's hut, south east New Guinea, in the Hall of Primitive Medicine. Photograph.
  • Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, Wigmore Street, London: west wall of the Gallery of Pictures. Photograph.
  • A surgeon binding up a woman's arm after bloodletting. Oil painting by Jacob Toorenvliet, 1666.
  • A surgeon binding up a woman's arm after bloodletting. Oil painting by Jacob Toorenvliet, 1666.
  • A surgeon binding up a woman's arm after bloodletting. Oil painting by Jacob Toorenvliet, 1666.
  • A surgeon binding up a woman's arm after bloodletting. Oil painting by Jacob Toorenvliet, 1666.
  • A surgeon binding up a woman's arm after bloodletting. Oil painting by Jacob Toorenvliet, 1666.
  • Seven clergymen watch as a physician bathes the feet of a sick, aristocratic lady; suggesting the uncertainty of the clergy faced with the ousting of the aristocracy in France. Coloured etching by S.J., 1791.
  • Secunderabad, India: the room in which Ronald Ross attributed the transmission of the malaria parasite to the anopheles mosquito. Photograph by Raja Deen Dayal & Sons, 19--.
  • The viscera with a foetus in utero. Watercolour drawing by a Persian artist.
  • The arteries of the human body with a foetus in the womb. Watercolour by a Persian artist.
  • Cow's urine used as a medical treatment in India: a sick man is held over a cow's hindquarters, so that the cow's urine streams onto his face. Engraving by C. du Bosc after B. Picart, ca. 1730.
  • The holy Cow personified as World Mother with many Sanskrit verses. Chromolithograph.
  • The Sir Jamsetjee hospital, Grant medical college, and surrounding grounds, Bombay. Wood engraving after H. Hinton.
  • Manasā, Indian goddess of snakes and protection against snakebite. Watercolour.
  • A masseur massaging the arm of a man who is sitting on a low stool, with a leg immersed in a brass basin. Gouache painting, ca. 1825.
  • Raksha Kali, a form of the goddess Parvati worshipped for protection against epidemics and drought. Watercolour.
  • An ear-cleaner, attending to a man's ear. Gouache painting by an Indian artist, ca. 1825.
  • Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital, Delhi: women students in a laboratory. Photograph, 1921.
  • An Ayurvedic medical practitioner taking the pulse. Watercolour, ca. 1825.
  • The arteries of the human body with a foetus in the womb. Watercolour by a Persian artist.
  • The holy Cow personified as World Mother with many Sanskrit verses. Chromolithograph.