AIDS and syphilis: exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. Colour lithograph, 1995.

High matter, dark language : the philosophy of Robert Fludd (1574-1637) an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine catalogue / [prepared by] Christine English, Michael Fend and Robert Jan van Pelt.

Cynara cardunculus L. Asteraceae. Cardoon, Globe Artichoke, Artechokes, Scolymos cinara, Cynara, Cinara. Distribution: Southern Europe and North Africa. Lyte (1576) writes that Dodoens (1552) could find no medical use for them and Galen (c.200 AD) said they were indigestible unless cooked. However, he relates that other authors recommend that if the flower heads are soaked in strong wine, they 'provoke urine and stir up lust in the body.' More prosaically, the roots boiled in wine and drunk it cause the urine to be 'stinking' and so cures smelly armpits. He adds that it strengthens the stomach so causing women to conceive Male children. He goes on to say that the young shoots boiled in broth also stir up lust in men and women, and more besides. Lyte (1576) was translating, I think with elaborations, from the chapter on Scolymos cinara, Artichaut, in Dodoen's Croydeboeck (1552) as L'Ecluse's French translation, Dodoens Histoire des Plantes (1575) does not mention these latter uses, but Dodoen's own Latin translation, the Pemptades (1583), and Gerard's Herbal (1633) both do so. It is useful in understanding the history of these translations to realise that Gerard uses, almost verbatim, the translation of the 'smelly armpit' paragraph from Lyte. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.

Cynara cardunculus L. Asteraceae. Cardoon, Globe Artichoke, Artechokes, Scolymos cinara, Cynara, Cinara. Distribution: Southern Europe and North Africa. Lyte (1576) writes that Dodoens (1552) could find no medical use for them and Galen (c.200 AD) said they were indigestible unless cooked. However he relates that other authors recommend that if the flower heads are soaked in strong wine, they 'provoke urine and stir up lust in the body.' More prosaically, the roots boiled in wine and drunk it cause the urine to be 'stinking' and so cures smelly armpits. He adds that it strengthens the stomach so causing women to conceive Male children. He goes on to say that the young shoots boiled in broth also stir up lust in men and women, and more besides. Lyte (1576) was translating, I think with elaborations, from the chapter on Scolymos cinara, Artichaut, in Dodoen's Croydeboeck (1552) as L'Ecluse's French translation (1575) does not mention these latter uses, but Dodoen's own Latin translation, the Pemptades(1583), and Gerard's (1633) both do so. It is useful in understanding the history of these translations to realise that Gerard uses, almost verbatim, the translation of the 'smelly armpit' paragraph from Lyte. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.

A catalogue of printed books in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library / with a foreword by Sir Henry Hallett Dale.

Episodes in the life of Prince Dri-med-kun-Idan. Distemper painting by a Tibetan painter.

[Wellcome Chinese Collection 100].

Tibetan paper charm consisting of five figures. Watercolour, Tibet.

Yama, Buddhist god of death, with the head of a buffalo bedecked with skulls and flames, stands on a bull crushing a man lying on his back. Distemper painting.

Tibetan fortune telling card. Watercolour, Tibet.

Dpal-Idan Lha-mo (Magzor Palden Lhamo, or Shri Devi), a Tibetan demon goddess riding on a mule. Distemper painting.

dPal-Idan Lha-mo (Magzor Palden Lhamo), a Tibetan demon goddess riding on a mule. Distemper painting by a Tibetan painter.

The Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara surrounded by other Buddhist deities. Distemper painting.

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