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  • Article

Native Americans through the 19th-century lens

The stories behind Rinehart's photographs may not be as black and white as they first appear.

  • Article

Colonialism and the origins of skin bleaching

The widespread practice of skin bleaching was heavily influenced by the Western colonisation and slavery of African and South Asian countries. Ngunan Adamu explores this toxic history.

  • Article

The gym of cartoon men

In men, body dysmorphia can be expressed as ‘bigorexia’ – the belief that your body is too weak and thin – or anorexia. Andrew McMillan explores two sides of the same coin.

  • Article

Soil health and dairy farming in the UK

Although healthy soil means more nutritious dairy products, modern intensive farming methods pollute and degrade the environment. However, a regenerative agriculture movement is kicking back against mainstream industrial farming.

All stories (4)

Images

  • Cord compression, odontoid erosion
  • SEM bone, erosion of trabeculae
  • Erosion of the enamel of the teeth.
  • Geography: rock bridge formed by erosion. Coloured wood engraving by C. Whymper.
  • Nepal; agriculture and subsistence in the Khumbu, 1986. Sherpa with young yak. The economic emphasis of the Khumbu is on animal husbandry, and the breeding and tending of yaks and cattle was an important occupation when this photograph was taken. Yaks command a good price. On walled, flat terraces, Sherpas cultivate their staple diet of potatoes, barley, buckwheat, and in lower areas, rice. In this picture, taken at altitude 2900 metres, the land sustains the commercial cultivation of medicinal herbs although increases in production are limited by environmental degradation, largely through soil erosion.
  • Albizia julibrissin Durazz. Fabaceae. Persian silk tree. Called 'shabkhosb' in Persian, meaning 'sleeping tree' as the pinnate leaves close up at night. Tropical tree. Named for Filippo degli Albizzi, an Italian naturalist, who brought seeds from Constantinople to Florence in 1749, and introduced it to European horticulture. The specific epithet comes from the Persian 'gul-i abrisham' which means 'silk flower'. Distribution: South Africa to Ethiopia, Senegal, Madagascar, Asia. Bark is poisonous and emetic and antihelminthic. Various preparations are widely used for numerous conditions and the oxitocic albitocin is abortifacient. However, studies on the seeds and bark of other Albizia species in Africa, demonstrate it is highly toxic, half a kilogram of seeds given to a quarter ton bull, killed it in two hours (Neuwinger, 1996). A useful tree for controlling soil erosion, producing shade in coffee plantations, and as a decorative shade tree in gardens. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Albizia julibrissin Durazz. Fabaceae. Persian silk tree. Called 'shabkhosb' in Persian, meaning 'sleeping tree' as the pinnate leaves close up at night. Tropical tree. Named for Filippo degli Albizzi, an Italian naturalist, who brought seeds from Constantinople to Florence in 1749, and introduced it to European horticulture. The specific epithet comes from the Persian 'gul-i abrisham' which means 'silk flower'. Distribution: South Africa to Ethiopia, Senegal, Madagascar, Asia. Bark is poisonous and emetic and antihelminthic. Various preparations are widely used for numerous conditions and the oxitocic albitocin is abortifacient. However, studies on the seeds and bark of other Albizia species in Africa, demonstrate it is highly toxic, half a kilogram of seeds given to a quarter ton bull, killed it in two hours (Neuwinger, 1996). A useful tree for controlling soil erosion, producing shade in coffee plantations, and as a decorative shade tree in gardens. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Pulmonaria officinalis L. Boraginaceae Distribution: Officinalis indicates its medicinal use in early medicine. Europe. Pulmonaria or Lungwort are names for a lichen and a perennial plant in the Boraginaceae. This is the latter. Lyte (1578) has a woodcut of our plant and also calls it Sage of Jerusalem and says it is of ' no particular use in physicke, but is much used in meates and salads with eggs, as is also Cowslippes and Primroses, whereunto in temperature it is much alike.' He lists and describes the lichen separately. Culpeper (1650) said he found many sorts of lunguewort in perusing Authors ' Pulmonari, arborea and Symphytum maculosum [and the latter is our plant, the others the lichen] and that they 'helpe infirmities of the lungues, as hoarseness, coughs, wheezing, shortnesse of breath etc.' Coles (1657) who espouses the Doctrine of Signatures in a way unrivalled by any other English author, might have been expected to confirm the concept that the mottled leaves looked like the cut surface of a lung which indicates their purpose, but he only mentions the lungwort which is a lichen. However, Porta's beautiful book on the Doctrine, Phytognomica (1588), is clear that the plant called Pulmonaria with hairy leaves like a bugloss, spotted white with purple flowers, commonly called 'cynoglossa' [with a woodcut which could be Pulmonaria officinalis] indicate its use for ulcerated lungs, spitting blood, shortness of breath and asthma equally with the lichen with the same name. Lobel & Pena (1570) call it 'PULMONARIA, masculosa folia Borrago, floribus Primula veris, purpureis [PULMONARIA spotted, Borage-leaved, flowers like Primula veris - Cowslips - purple]' and say that women mix the leaves with a little broth and make it into an omelette for lung disorders and to strengthen the heart. Lobel (1576) calls it Maculosa Pulmonaria and describes a white flowered form with a good woodcut. Gerard (1633) uses the same woodcut as Lobel and calls it Pulmonatia foliis Echii, Buglosse Cowslips with red flowers, and a woodcut of a narrow leaved plant as Pulmonaria masculosa, Spotted Cowslips of Jerusalem with red, blue and purple flowers and says 'the leaves are used among pot-herbes. The roots are aso thought to be good against the infirmities of ulcers of the lungs...'. Quincy (1718) writes: '... it has a glutinous juice ... and heals ulcers and erosions. It is commended in coughs and spitting of blood but is little used either in the Shop or Prescriptions. Not used in modern medicine. It is in the family Boraginaceae whose species are often rich in pyrrolizidine alkaloids that cause liver toxicity and liver cancers, but levels in Pulmonaria officinalis may not be significant. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Pulmonaria officinalis L. Boraginaceae Distribution: Europe. Pulmonaria or Lungwort are names for a lichen and a perennial plant in the Boraginaceae. This is the latter. Lyte (1578) has a woodcut of our plant and also calls it Sage of Jerusalem and says it is of 'no particular use in physicke, but is much used in meates and salads with eggs, as is also Cowslippes and Primroses, whereunto in temperature it is much alike.' He lists and describes the lichen separately. Culpeper (1650) said he found many sorts of lunguewort in perusing Authors ' Pulmonari, arborea and Symphytum maculosum [and the latter is our plant, the others the lichen] and that they 'helpe infirmities of the lungues, as hoarseness, coughs, wheezing, shortnesse of breath etc.' Coles (1657) who espouses the Doctrine of Signatures in a way unrivalled by any other English author, might have been expected to confirm the concept that the mottled leaves looked like the cut surface of a lung which indicates their purpose, but he only mentions the lungwort which is a lichen. However, Porta's beautiful book on the Doctrine, Phytognomica (1588), is clear that the plant called Pulmonaria with hairy leaves like a bugloss, spotted white with purple flowers, commonly called 'cynoglossa' [with a woodcut which could be Pulmonaria officinalis] indicate its use for ulcerated lungs, spitting blood, shortness of breath and asthma equally with the lichen with the same name. Lobel & Pena (1570) call it 'PULMONARIA, masculosa folia Borrago. floribus Primula veris, purpureis [PULMONARIA spotted, Borage-leaved, flowers like Primula veris - Cowslips - purple]' and say that women mix the leaves with a little broth and make it into an omelette for lung disorders and to strengthen the heart.. Lobel (1576) calls it Maculosa Pulmonaria and describes a white flowered form with a good woodcut. Gerard (1633) uses the same woodcut as Lobel and calls it Pulmonatia foliis Echii, Buglosse Cowslips with red flowers, and a woodcut of a narrow leaved plant as Pulmonaria masculosa, Spotted Cowslips of Jerusalem with red, blue and purple flowers and says 'the leaves are used among pot-herbes. The roots are aso thought to be good against the infirmities of ulcers of the lungs...'. Quincy (1718) writes: '... it has a glutinous juice ... and heals ulcers and erosions. It is commended in coughs and spitting of blood but is little used either in the Shop or Prescriptions'. Not used in modern medicine. It is in the family Boraginaceae whose species are often rich in pyrrolizidine alkaloids that cause liver toxicity and liver cancers, but levels in Pulmonaria officinalis may not be significant. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Pulmonaria rubra L. Boraginaceae A red-flowered species, mentioned in 16th and 17th herbals, but with the same properties as officinalis. Distribution: Europe. Pulmonaria or Lungwort are names for a lichen and a perennial plant in the Boraginaceae. This is the latter. Lyte (1578) has a woodcut of our plant and also calls it Sage of Jerusalem and says it is of 'no particular use in physicke, but is much used in meates and salads with eggs, as is also Cowslippes and Primroses, whereunto in temperature it is much alike.' He lists and describes the lichen separately. Culpeper (1650) said he found many sorts of lunguewort in perusing Authors 'Pulmonari, arborea and Symphytum maculosum [and the latter is our plant, the others the lichen] and that they 'helpe infirmities of the lungues, as hoarseness, coughs, wheezing, shortnesse of breath etc.' Coles (1657) who espouses the Doctrine of Signatures in a way unrivalled by any other English author, might have been expected to confirm the concept that the mottled leaves looked like the cut surface of a lung which indicates their purpose, but he only mentions the lungwort which is a lichen. However, Porta's beautiful book on the Doctrine, Phytognomica (1588), is clear that the plant called pulmonaria with hairy leaves like a bugloss, spotted white with purple flowers, commonly called 'cynoglossa' [with a woodcut which could be Pulmonaria officinalis] indicate its use for ulcerated lungs, spitting blood, shortness of breath and asthma equally with the lichen with the same name. Lobel & Pena (1570) call it 'PULMONARIA, masculosa folia Borrago. floribus Primula veris, purpureis[ PULMONARIA spotted, Borage-leaved, flowers like Primula veris - Cowslips - purple] and say that women mix the leaves with a little broth and make it into an omelette for lung disorders and to strengthen the heart. Lobel (1576) calls it Maculosa Pulmonaria and describes a white flowered form, with a good woodcut. Gerard (1633) uses the same woodcut as Lobel and calls it Pulmonatia foliis Echii, Buglosse Cowslips with red flowers, and a woodcut of a narrow leaved plant as Pulmonaria masculosa, Spotted Cowslips of Jerusalem with red, blue and purple flowers and says 'the leaves are used among pot-herbes. The roots are aso thought to be good against the infirmities of ulcers of the lungs...'. Quincy (1718) writes: '... it has a glutinous juice ... and heals ulcers and erosions. It is commended in coughs and spitting of blood but is little used either in the Shop or Prescriptions. Not used in modern medicine. It is in the family Boraginaceae whose species are often rich in pyrrolizidine alkaloids that cause liver toxicity and liver cancers, but levels in Pulmonaria officinalis may not be significant. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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