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  • Itinerant medicine vendors in Rome. Oil painting attributed to Dirk Helmbreker.
  • Itinerant medicine vendors in Rome. Oil painting attributed to Dirk Helmbreker.
  • Itinerant medicine vendors in Rome. Oil painting attributed to Dirk Helmbreker.
  • An itinerant medicine vendor in Rome. Oil painting after Karel Dujardin (?).
  • An itinerant medicine vendor in Rome. Oil painting after Karel Dujardin (?).
  • An itinerant medicine vendor in Rome. Oil painting after Karel Dujardin (?).
  • An itinerant medicine vendor in Rome. Oil painting after Karel Dujardin (?).
  • An itinerant medicine vendor in Rome. Oil painting after Karel Dujardin (?).
  • Saint Philip Neri (26th May). Born in Florence, 1515. Spent his life working in Rome and hence called the Apostle of Rome. Died in 1595. no connection with medicine. Represented usually surrounded by children.
  • A travelling tooth-drawer and medicine vendor in a town near Rome. Engraving by A.L. Richter, ca. 1834, after D.W. Lindau.
  • An itinerant medicine vendor and tooth-drawer with his company, performing operations and offering medicines for sale from a waggon to a crowd of people in Rome. Wood engraving, 1872.
  • An itinerant medicine vendor and tooth-drawer with his company, performing operations and offering medicines for sale from a waggon to a crowd of people in Rome. Wood engraving, 1872.
  • An itinerant medicine vendor performing on stage with several assistants, selling their wares to a small audience in Rome. Etching by W. Unger after D. Helmbreker.
  • An itinerant medicine vendor performing on stage with several assistants, selling their wares to a small audience in Rome. Etching by W. Unger after D. Helmbreker.
  • Itinerant actors performing on stage in Rome an attempt to sell medicines to local people. Etching by A. Chataignier and engraving by C. Niquet, the elder, 1818, after J. Swebach-Desfontaines after K. Dujardin, 1687.
  • Carter's Little Nerve Pills for the nervous & dyspeptic : find - cow, owl, fox, frog, parrot, horse, lizard, goose, man smoking pipe, rooster crowing, General Grant, Romeo and Juliet ... / Carter Medicine Co.
  • Carter's Little Nerve Pills for the nervous & dyspeptic : find - cow, owl, fox, frog, parrot, horse, lizard, goose, man smoking pipe, rooster crowing, General Grant, Romeo and Juliet ... / Carter Medicine Co.
  • Valeriana officinalis L. Valerianaceae Valerianus, Phu, Nardus sylvestris, Setwal. Distribution: Europe. Popular herbalism attributes sedation to Valerian, but this is not mentioned by Coles (1657) or Gerard (1633) or Lobel (1576) or Lyte (1578) or Dioscorides (ex Gunther, 1959) or Fuchs (1553), where he quotes Pliny, Dioscorides and Galen, or Parkinson (1640), or Pomet (1712). The English translation of Tournefort (1719-1730) covers a whole page of the uses of all the different valerians, but never mentions sedation or treating anxiety. Quincy (1718) does not mention it. Because it was used in epilepsy, for which Woodville (1792) says it was useless, Haller, in his Historia stirpium indegenarum Helvetae inchoatae (1768) advocates it for those with irritability of the nervous system, as does Thomson's London Dispensatory (1811) although he lists it as an 'antispasmodic and stimulant' and for inducing menstruation. Lindley (1838) notes (as many did) that the roots smell terrible and that this makes cats excited, and in man, in large doses, induce 'scintillations, agitation and even convulsions' so used in asthenic fever, epilepsy, chorea, hysteria and as an antihelminthic.' Fluckiger & Hanbury (1879) give a wonderful account of the history of its names, but give its use as 'stimulant and antispasmodic' as do Barton & Castle (1877). but by 1936 (Martindale's Extra Pharmacopoeia) its only use was 'Given in hysterical and neurotic conditions as a sedative. Its action has been attributed to its unpleasant smell'. The European Medicines Agency (2006) approves its use as a traditional herbal medicine for mild anxiety and sleeplessness for up to 4 weeks. Despite what is written continuously about its use in ancient Greece and Rome, the only reason for its use has been because it was thought, for a brief while, to be good for epilepsy and therefore might deal with persons of a nervous disposition because of its foul smell. It has been suggested that even its Greek name, 'Phu' came from the expression of disgust which is made when one sniffs an unpleasant odour. For 1,800 years, before the last century, no-one had thought it sedative. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Roman surgical instruments (A-C) different hooks
  • An anatomical dissection by Realdus Colombus, attended by onlookers. Collotype after a woodcut, 1559.
  • Mario Coluzzi. Photograph by L.J. Bruce-Chwatt.
  • Manuel Baldomero Márquez Escobedo. Photograph by L.J. Bruce-Chwatt.
  • Manuel Baldomero Márquez Escobedo. Photograph by L.J. Bruce-Chwatt.
  • The muscles of the left leg, seen from the front, and the bones and muscles of the right leg seen in right profile, and between them, a patella. Drawing by Michelangelo Buonarroti, ca. 1515-1520.
  • The muscles of the left leg, seen from the front, and the bones and muscles of the right leg seen in right profile, and between them, a patella. Drawing by Michelangelo Buonarroti, ca. 1515-1520.
  • The muscles of the left leg, seen from the front, and the bones and muscles of the right leg seen in right profile, and between them, a patella. Drawing by Michelangelo Buonarroti, ca. 1515-1520.
  • The muscles of the left leg, seen from the front, and the bones and muscles of the right leg seen in right profile, and between them, a patella. Drawing by Michelangelo Buonarroti, ca. 1515-1520.
  • The arterial system of the human body. Engraving, 1568.
  • The venous and arterial system of the human body with internal organs and detail figures of the generative system. Engraving, 1568.
  • Two male figures, seen from the front and back, with the cutaneous veins of the human body displayed. Engraving, 1568.