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Stories

  • Article

The meaning of trauma is wound

Daisy Johnson recalls her difficult journey to being diagnosed with vaginismus, and why women are so good at turning bad things into a joke.

  • Article

Documents of my breath

Swati Joshi’s childhood bronchitis meant that she couldn’t imagine being able to breathe easily. As an adult, she chronicles her recovery through artworks created using bubbles and her breath.

  • Article

Parasites and pests from the medieval to the modern

Humans have been reluctant hosts to a plethora of unpleasant parasites for centuries. And medieval evidence shows our modern distaste for these little irritations is just as ancient.

  • Article

Drug sharing in desperate times

When Nicole was threatened with deportation, her mental health deteriorated. Now without a job, a passport or a doctor, she depends on others to send her their leftover anxiety drugs.

All stories (4)

Images

  • A case of Baker's Itch
  • 'Sweet itch' on a horse's back.
  • An itch mite (Acarus autumnalis). Coloured etching, ca. 1790.
  • Diseased skin and boils on the hands, head and leg of a woman, showing symptoms of 'pustular itch'. Watercolour by C. D'Alton, 1866.
  • Have handy Sherriffs Ointment : the great cure for eczema, erysipelas, herpes, nettlerash, itch, bad legs, old sores, cuts. It is healing, soothing and antiseptic / Alexander Sherriffs.
  • Had an itch, ignored it, got worse, where's that number? What will they think? : ......Pheew! Wasn't too bad, needed treatment, no lasting harm, so glad I went ... / Health Education Authority.
  • Helleborus x hybridus Hort. Ex Vilmorin Ranunculaceae. A range of hybrids from Helleborus orientalis the Oriental hellebore. Distribution: Europe through to the Caucasus. All very poisonous. Culpeper (1650) says: “The roots (boiled in vinegar) ... be an admirable remedy against inveterate scabs, itch and leprosy, the same helps the toothache, being held in the mouth
  • Scabiosa columbaria L. Dipsacaceae. Small scabious. Distribution: Europe. Culpeper (1650) writes: ‘The roots either boiled or beaten into powder and so taken, helps such as are extremely troubled with scabs and itch, are medicinal in the French-pocks [syphilis], hard swellings, inward wounds ...’ The genus name comes from the Latin word scabies, meaning ‘itch’. According to the Doctrine of Signatures, the rough leaves indicated that it would cure eczematous skin. However, the leaves are not really very rough... Not used in herbal medicine at the present time except in Southern Africa where it is used for colic and heartburn, and the roots made into an ointment for curing wounds (van Wyk, 2000). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Summer itches, bites & stings : their treatment and relief : Lanacane.
  • Summer itches, bites & stings : their treatment and relief : Lanacane.
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Catalogue

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Events

  • Seminar

Itching Without End in the Early Modern Period

Viewing Room
Past

Part of Exploring Research

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