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  • Men drinking, vomiting and collapsing around a tavern table. Etching by J. Le Poutre, 17th century, after himself.
  • A drunk young man vomiting outside a social gathering. Colour lithograph for Nationaal Instituut voor Gezondheidsbevordering en Ziektepreventie, ca. 2000.
  • A woman holding her stomach and vomiting into a bucket after self administering an emetic. Coloured etching by I. Cruikshank, 1800.
  • A woman holding her stomach and vomiting into a bucket after self administering an emetic. Coloured etching by I. Cruikshank, 1800.
  • A peasant man sits on a tree stump vomiting and onlookers hold their noses, with an accompanying couplet. Etching, 17th century.
  • Jason being vomited from the dragon of Colchis's mouth after it had received a drug from Athena. Gouache painting by S.W. Kelly, 1936.
  • A man vomiting after overeating and drinking; representing the sense of touch. Engraving by J.J. Kleinschmidt after Jan van de Velde the younger.
  • A man vomiting and with diarrhoea owing to infected water; and four scenes related to the results of water infection. Colour lithograph, 1952 (?).
  • Largactil : anaesthesia, psychiatry, nausea and vomiting, pain... : Phenergan promethazine, a phenothiazine derivative unique in its action : pruritis motion sickness, insomnia, drug sensitization, pre-operative tension, Parkinsonism / Poulenc Limited.
  • Larevellière-Lépeaux sits in a disordered quack doctor's room, in the presence of seven wounded French generals, one of them vomiting; representing French defeats in 1799 and Bonaparte's failed imperial ambitions in the east. Coloured etching by J. Gillray, 1799.
  • Aralia spinosa L. Araliaceae. Devil's walking stick, Prickly ash, Hercules' club. Tree. Distribution: Eastern North America. Contact with sap causes skin irritation, raw berries mildly toxic to humans, causing diarrhoea and vomiting. Eaten by bears. Used medicinally by Native Americans for a variety of conditions. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Skimmia japonica Thunb. Rutaceae 'Rubella' Distribution: China, Japan and E. Asia. The genus name is derived from the Japanese word shikimi (Stearn, 1994). All parts of the plant are poisonous, containing skimmianin. It is said to cause vomiting and, if eaten in large quantities, cardiac arrest. (Duke, 1985) Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Polypharmakos kai chymistēs: or, The English unparalell'd physitian and chyrurgian : shewing the true use of all manner of plants and minerals. In which is explained, the whole art and secresy of physick and chyrurgery. Wherein is contained, 1. The cure of any internal disease, which hath taken effect, and brought forth symptoms, ... 2. The making of diverse rare and excellent balsames, oyls, plaisters, and waters, with the effects thereof. 3. The making, and use of purges, vomits, drinks, and clisters, ... 4. The nature and temperarure [sic] of herbs, plants, and vegetables, ... 5. The way to extract the spirits and quintaessences of several sorts of herbs and minerals, and the rare operations they have. 6. The making of salt of wormwood, balm, or any other herb. 7. The cure of any wound, contusion, puncture, or ulcer in any part of the body. All which have been prescribed and practised by several learned doctors and chyrurgians. / By D. Border, practitioner in physick.
  • Polypharmakos kai chymistēs: or, The English unparalell'd physitian and chyrurgian : shewing the true use of all manner of plants and minerals. In which is explained, the whole art and secresy of physick and chyrurgery. Wherein is contained, 1. The cure of any internal disease, which hath taken effect, and brought forth symptoms, ... 2. The making of diverse rare and excellent balsames, oyls, plaisters, and waters, with the effects thereof. 3. The making, and use of purges, vomits, drinks, and clisters, ... 4. The nature and temperarure [sic] of herbs, plants, and vegetables, ... 5. The way to extract the spirits and quintaessences of several sorts of herbs and minerals, and the rare operations they have. 6. The making of salt of wormwood, balm, or any other herb. 7. The cure of any wound, contusion, puncture, or ulcer in any part of the body. All which have been prescribed and practised by several learned doctors and chyrurgians. / By D. Border, practitioner in physick.
  • Polypharmakos kai chymistēs: or, The English unparalell'd physitian and chyrurgian : shewing the true use of all manner of plants and minerals. In which is explained, the whole art and secresy of physick and chyrurgery. Wherein is contained, 1. The cure of any internal disease, which hath taken effect, and brought forth symptoms, ... 2. The making of diverse rare and excellent balsames, oyls, plaisters, and waters, with the effects thereof. 3. The making, and use of purges, vomits, drinks, and clisters, ... 4. The nature and temperarure [sic] of herbs, plants, and vegetables, ... 5. The way to extract the spirits and quintaessences of several sorts of herbs and minerals, and the rare operations they have. 6. The making of salt of wormwood, balm, or any other herb. 7. The cure of any wound, contusion, puncture, or ulcer in any part of the body. All which have been prescribed and practised by several learned doctors and chyrurgians. / By D. Border, practitioner in physick.
  • Polypharmakos kai chymistēs: or, The English unparalell'd physitian and chyrurgian : shewing the true use of all manner of plants and minerals. In which is explained, the whole art and secresy of physick and chyrurgery. Wherein is contained, 1. The cure of any internal disease, which hath taken effect, and brought forth symptoms, ... 2. The making of diverse rare and excellent balsames, oyls, plaisters, and waters, with the effects thereof. 3. The making, and use of purges, vomits, drinks, and clisters, ... 4. The nature and temperarure [sic] of herbs, plants, and vegetables, ... 5. The way to extract the spirits and quintaessences of several sorts of herbs and minerals, and the rare operations they have. 6. The making of salt of wormwood, balm, or any other herb. 7. The cure of any wound, contusion, puncture, or ulcer in any part of the body. All which have been prescribed and practised by several learned doctors and chyrurgians. / By D. Border, practitioner in physick.
  • Polypharmakos kai chymistēs: or, The English unparalell'd physitian and chyrurgian : shewing the true use of all manner of plants and minerals. In which is explained, the whole art and secresy of physick and chyrurgery. Wherein is contained, 1. The cure of any internal disease, which hath taken effect, and brought forth symptoms, ... 2. The making of diverse rare and excellent balsames, oyls, plaisters, and waters, with the effects thereof. 3. The making, and use of purges, vomits, drinks, and clisters, ... 4. The nature and temperarure [sic] of herbs, plants, and vegetables, ... 5. The way to extract the spirits and quintaessences of several sorts of herbs and minerals, and the rare operations they have. 6. The making of salt of wormwood, balm, or any other herb. 7. The cure of any wound, contusion, puncture, or ulcer in any part of the body. All which have been prescribed and practised by several learned doctors and chyrurgians. / By D. Border, practitioner in physick.
  • Polypharmakos kai chymistēs: or, The English unparalell'd physitian and chyrurgian : shewing the true use of all manner of plants and minerals. In which is explained, the whole art and secresy of physick and chyrurgery. Wherein is contained, 1. The cure of any internal disease, which hath taken effect, and brought forth symptoms, ... 2. The making of diverse rare and excellent balsames, oyls, plaisters, and waters, with the effects thereof. 3. The making, and use of purges, vomits, drinks, and clisters, ... 4. The nature and temperarure [sic] of herbs, plants, and vegetables, ... 5. The way to extract the spirits and quintaessences of several sorts of herbs and minerals, and the rare operations they have. 6. The making of salt of wormwood, balm, or any other herb. 7. The cure of any wound, contusion, puncture, or ulcer in any part of the body. All which have been prescribed and practised by several learned doctors and chyrurgians. / By D. Border, practitioner in physick.
  • A trio of quack doctors attending to Britannia: the Earl of Bute with an ass's head blindfolds a woman who is vomiting into a bowl held by Louis XV as a baboon: Tobias Smollett takes her pulse;while Henry Fox approaches her with a clyster-pipe; representing the loss of British assets to France in the Treaty of Paris. Etching attributed to Paul Sandby, 1762.
  • Blister pack of chloroquine antimalarial tablets. Chloroquine is used to prevent and treat the infectious disease malaria. Malaria is caused by parasites (Plasmodium species) which enter the blood when inefcted mosquitoes feed. Side effects of chloroquine include vomitting, nausea and headache. Retinopathy (damage to the retina) is a rare eye condition associated with long term use over many years. Drug resistance against antimalarials is increasing.
  • A new theory of acute and slow continu'd fevers; wherein, besides their appearances and manner of cure, occasionally, the structure of the glands, and the manner and laws of secretion, the operation of purgative, vomitive, and mercurial medicines, are mechanically explain'd. Together with an application of the same theory to hectick fevers: and an essay concerning the improvements of the theory of medicine / [By G.C].
  • Iris unguicularis Poir. Iridaceae. Algerian iris. Rhizomatous perennial. Distribution: NW Africa, E. Mediterranean It has scientifically-based potential. The rhizomes contain the chemical kaempferol which inhibits the enzyme alpha-glucosidase in the gut, reducing the rate of glucose absorption. This could be used to prevent the dangerous peaks of blood sugar that occur in diabetics and reduce eye and kidney complications. The unprocessed rhizome contains iridin, a toxic glycoside, which causes 'nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and skin irritation'. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Ornithogalum umbellatum L. Hyacinthaceae Star of Bethlehem, Grass lily. Distribution: Central Europe, SW Asia, NW Africa. All parts are poisonous, especially the bulbs. The toxin is a cardiac glycoside with effects similar to digoxin, vomiting, cardiac irregularities and death in humans and livestock. Only used for decoration by Native Americans (it is a non-native plant that has escaped into the wild from cultivation) and called Sleepydick (Moerman, 1998). One of its toxins is Convallotoxin, also present in Lily of the Valley, Convallaria majalis. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Geranium sanguineum L. Geraniaceae Dusky cranesbill. Herbaceous perennial. Distribution: Europe and temperate Asia. County flower of Northumberland. This seems to be the 'Sanguin geranium or Blood Roote', Geranium haematodes/haematites, of Lyte (1578). He writes that it is 'not used in Medicyne.' Parkinson (1640) classifies cranesbills somewhat differently, but says that 'all are found to be effectual both in inward and outward wounds, to stay bleedings, vomitings and fluxes, eyther the decoction of the herbe or the powder of the leaves and roots used as the cause demands. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Geranium phaeum L. Geraniaceae Dusky cranesbill. Herbaceous perennial. Distribution: Europe. This seems to be the 'Dove's foote', Geranium alterum, of Lyte (1578). He says it is 'not good in Medicyne. Notwithstanding at this time, it is much used against all woundes, and ulcers being laid therunto.'. Parkinson (1640) classifies cranesbills somewhat differently, but says that 'all are found to be effectual both in inward and outward wounds, to stay bleedings, vomitings and fluxes, eyther the decoction of the herbe or the powder of the leaves and roots used as the cause demands.' No current medicinal use. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Gaultheria procumbens Kalm Ericaeae. Wintergreen, teaberry, boxberry, chickerberry. Distribution: North American forests. Named for French physician/botanist Jean Francois Gaultier (1708-1756). Physician to the French King, emigrated to Quebec in 1742. Researched flora of North America, died of typhus (Oakeley, 2012). Source of oil of wintergreen. Ten pounds of oil can be extracted from a ton of leaves. Toxic effects: Stupidity, swelling of the tongue, food craving, epigastric tenderness, vomiting, dyspnoea, hot skin, tachycardia, restlessness (MiIlspaugh, 1974). Active chemical is methyl salicylate. Used topically for musculo-skeletal conditions, it is converted to salicylic acid when absorbed. Excess use has caused a death. Salicylic acid is also used for warts and corns (first described by Dioscorides in 70CE)
  • Polygonum bistorta L. Polygonaceae Bistort, snakeweed, Easter Ledges. Distribution: Europe, N & W Asia. Culpeper: “... taken inwardly resist pestilence and poison, helps ruptures, and bruises, stays fluxes, vomiting and immoderate flowing of the terms in women, helps inflammations and soreness of the mouth, and fastens loose teeth, being bruised and boiled in white wine and the mouth washed with it.” In modern herbal medicine it is still used for a similar wide variety of internal conditions, but it can also be cooked and eaten as a vegetable. The use to relieve toothache, applied as a paste to the affected tooth, seems to have been widespread. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Carthamus tinctorius L. Asteraceae. Safe Flower, False Saffron - Distribution: W. Asia. Dioscorides (in Beck, 2003) notes the seeds as a purgative, but also advises it made up with 30 figs, which must have helped. Gerard (1640) calls it Atractylis flore luteo the yellow distaffe thistle. and follows Dioscorides in its uses, but does get the reader confused with Cnicus benedictus, calling both plants 'wild bastard saffron'. Culpeper makes no mention of it in his early works, but later (1826) have the following: ‘Wild Saffon, or Saf-flower ... accounted a pretty strong cathartic [causing diarrhoea and vomiting], evacuating tough viscid phlegm, both upwards and downwards, and by that means is said to clear the lungs, and help the phthisic [now equated with tuberculosis]. It is likewise serviceable against the jaundice
  • Illicium anisatum L. Illiciaceae Japanese Star Anise. Distribution Japan. This was also called Illicium religiosum and the fruits are toxic. Effects of taking Illicium anisatum tea include epilepsy, vomiting, shakiness and rapid eye movements (US Food and Drug Administration report, 2003). Lindley (1838) and Bentley (1861) thought that I. anisatum was used in cooking, but they were describing the uses of I. verum which is used as a spice in Asia. Illicium anisatum syn. religiosum is 'used to make incense in Japanese and Chinese temples and was called Skimi by Kaempfer. This derives from the Japanese word 'shi-kimi'. The seed pods of both species contain shikimic acid (the name being derived from the Japanese) from which Tamiflu, the antiviral drug was synthesised. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Sempervivum tectorum L. Crassulaceae Houseleek, Senegreene Distribution: Europe. Sempervivum means 'live forever', tectorum means 'roof', and was apparently grown on house roofs to protect against lightning. Lyte (1578 distinguishes Stonecrops (Sedum) from Sengreene (Sempervivum) for he advises the Sempervivum, alone or mixed with barley meal, applied topically to burns, scalds, St Anthony's fire [erysipelas], ulcers and sores, will cure them and sore eyes. Apropos of stonecrops (Sedum), he describes the redness and blistering that the sap has on bare skin, and how it is good for poisons for if taken with vinegar by mouth it causes vomiting, but only safe to do so in strong people. He seems fairly confused as to which is which. Not approved by the European Medicines Agency for Traditional Herbal Medicinal use. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.