Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events
357 results
  • Gentlemen round a table at their club, smoking and drinking punch. Coloured mezzotint, late 18th century.
  • Compass Microscope - 18th century development of the Murschenbroek simple microscope. It has a circular disc carrying lens of various powers.
  • Three men round a barrel drinking, smoking and conversing. Engraving by F. Basan, mid 18th century, after I. van Ostade.
  • An Abyssinian woman sits on the floor near a smoking hooka. Coloured lithograph by J. Heicke after I. Forray, 18th century.
  • Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten sitting at a table with a jug, a drinking glass and a smoking pipe. Engraving by A. Bannerman, mid 18th century, after P. Roestraten.
  • Five Flemish men smoke, drink and sleep in a dingy smoke den. Engraving by D. Sornique, early 18th century, after D. Teniers, the younger.
  • The interior of a dingy smoke den where groups of men smoke, drink and play cards. Engraving by P. Moitte, 18th century, after a painting by D. Teniers, the younger.
  • The interior of a dingy smoke den where groups of men smoke, drink and play cards. Engraving by F. del Pedro, 18th century, after a painting by D. Teniers, the younger.
  • Five Flemish men, old and young alike, smoke and drink in a dingy smoke den. Engraving by T. Jorma (T. Major), 18th century, after a painting by D. Teniers, the younger.
  • Four Flemish men smoke and drink in a dingy smoke den, a man leans on the wall behind. Engraving by L. Lempereur, late 18th century, after a painting by D. Teniers, the younger.
  • Three Dutch men drink and smoke round a barrel-table, behind man exits the room. Engraving by P. C. Canot, 18th century, after a painting by D. Teniers, the younger.
  • A man sits outside a window to smoke and drink, his servant waits behind him. Stipple engraving by Sailliar, mid-18th century, after G. Dou.
  • 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 European gentleman smoking a hooka and being attended to by Asian men. Coloured etching, c. 1765.
  • A seated man smoking with a tankard on the table by his side. Procees print after P. Rajon, 1872, after J.L. Meissonier, 1858.
  • A woman smoking a pipe and holding a drinking glass. Etching.
  • A Dutch man and woman sit at a table in a summer house; he smokes a pipe. Engraving by S. Springsguth, c. 1792, after P.P. Benazech.
  • An episode in Tristram Shandy: Dr. Slop arriving at the home of Tristram Shandy, where Mr. Shandy is seated with a friend and smoking. Aquatint by J.H. Clark after L. Sterne.
  • A man lighting his pipe from a candle while holding a newspaper. Mezzotint after Vandermyn.
  • A young Jewish woman with long-crowned turban kneels on a mat smoking opium. Engraving, c. 1702.
  • An itinerant vendor selling pipes is surrounded by a crowd of children, dogs and passer-by. Etching by J.T. Smith, 1816.
  • Four Georgian gentlemen at their club seriously engaged in smoking. Stipple print by H. Bunbury, c. 1794.
  • Four Georgian gentlemen sit in their club seriously engaged in smoking. Engraving with stipple by H. Bunbury, 1794.
  • Six figures passing the time with various entertainments. Mezzotint by J. Wilson, 1771, after G.M. Kraus.
  • Sadler's Wells, as it was in 1737, with fashionable water-drinkers. Wood engraving, [post 1840].
  • An undertaker visiting a sick man in the hope of gaining a new client. Coloured etching after R. Newton.
  • An undertaker visiting a sick man in the hope of gaining a new client. Coloured etching after R. Newton.
  • Georgian gentlemen smoking, drinking and reading newspapers at their club. Coloured aquatint by John Caspar Ziegler after George Moutard Woodward, published by William Holland, 1798.
  • Georgian gentlemen smoking, drinking and reading newspapers at their club. Coloured aquatint by John Caspar Ziegler after George Moutard Woodward, published by William Holland, 1798.
  • Four men sit round a tax collector and blow smoke in his face. Coloured aquatint,by J.C. Ziegler, 1799, after R. Newton.