Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events
14 results
  • Finlay Asylum, Quebec, Canada. Wood engraving, 1870, after Stent & Lavers.
  • Taxus baccata L. Taxaceae European Yew. Trees are feminine in Latin, so while Taxus has a masculine ending (-us), its specific name, baccata (meaning 'having fleshy berries' (Stearn, 1994)), agrees with it in gender by having a female ending ( -a). Distribution: Europe. Although regarded as poisonous since Theophrastus, Gerard and his school friends used to eat the red berries (they are technically called 'arils') without harm. Johnson clearly ate the fleshy arils and spat out the seed, which is as poisonous as the leaves. It is a source of taxol, an important chemotherapeutic agent for breast and other cancers. It was first extracted from the bark of T. brevifolia, the Pacific yew tree, in 1966. About 1,100 kg of bark produces 10 g of taxol, and 360,000 trees a year would have been required for the needs of the USA – an unsustainable amount. In 1990 a precursor of taxol was extracted from the needles of the European yew so saving the Pacific trees. It is now produced in fermentation tanks from cell cultures of Taxus. Curiously, there is a fungus, Nodulisporium sylviforme, which lives on the yew tree, that also produces taxol. Because taxol stops cell division, it is also used in the stents that are inserted to keep coronary arteries open. Here it inhibits – in a different way, but like anti-fouling paint on the bottom of ships – the overgrowth of endothelial cells that would otherwise eventually block the tube. The economic costs of anticancer drugs are significant. Paclitaxel ‘Taxol’ for breast cancer costs (2012) £246 every 3 weeks
  • "Doctor Panurgus" curing the folly of his patients by purgative medicines and chemical cures. Line engraving attributed to Michael Droeshout, 16--.
  • Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim [Paracelsus]. Etching by R. Gaywood after Sir P. P. Rubens after Q. Matsys.
  • Popliteal aneurysm: reconstructed CT scan
  • A noblewoman in Bohemian costume. Etching by W. Hollar.
  • A horse surrounded by three roses, a marigold, a daffodil and a butterfly. Engraving by P. Williamson, 1663, after W. Hollar.
  • A large elephant with a monkey on its back and various flowers and insects. Etching by W. Hollar, 1663, after himself.
  • A lion surrounded by flowers and insects. Etching by J. Dunstall, 1663, after W. Hollar.
  • A wolf walking towards a dog and away from a sheep, surrounded by various flowers and insects. Engraving by P. Williamson, 1663, after W. Hollar.
  • A gathering of many different animals with a large walled classical Italian-style garden behind and a banner bearing the book title above. Etching by W. Hollar, 1663, after himself.
  • Democritus laughing and Heraclitus weeping, with a globe between them. Etching by R. Gaywood after J. van Vliet after Rembrandt van Rijn.
  • Democritus laughing and Heraclitus weeping, with a globe between them. Etching by R. Gaywood after J. van Vliet after Rembrandt van Rijn.
  • Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR), x-ray analysis