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  • Article

Bleeding healthy

For thousands of years, and in many different cultures, people have practised bloodletting for health and medical reasons. Julia Nurse explains where and when bleeding was used, how it was done, and why.

  • Article

When monarchs healed the sick

Our current Queen fortunately doesn’t have to spend hours laying hands on the sick to cure them. But it was a different story for monarchs of the early modern era, whose touch was a sought-after treatment for scrofula.

  • Article

Getting the measure of pain

In the 20th century doctors tried to find a way to measure pain. But even when ‘objective’ measures were rejected, an accurate understanding of another’s pain remained frustratingly elusive.

  • Article

Hamlet, the melancholic Prince of Denmark

Hamlet clearly demonstrates an excess of black bile and is arguably the most famous literary melancholic.

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Images

  • Medicinal leech Hirudo verbena
  • Moutparts from medicinal leech Hirudo verbena
  • Cocoon from medicinal leech Hirudo verbena
  • A treatise on the medicinal leech; including its medical and natural history, with a description of its anatomical structure; also remarks upon the diseases, preservation and management of leeches / [James Rawlins Johnson].
  • A treatise on the medicinal leech; including its medical and natural history, with a description of its anatomical structure; also remarks upon the diseases, preservation and management of leeches / [James Rawlins Johnson].
  • An African medicine man cupping and bleeding two patients. Wood engraving by Dalziel after J. Leech.
  • A physician administers leeches to a patient; advertising Knoll diuretic medicine. Colour process print, 19--, after L. Boilly, 1827.
  • A physician administers leeches to a patient; advertising Knoll diuretic medicine. Colour process print, 19--, after L. Boilly, 1827.
  • An African medicine man or shaman using symbols and small animals to eject a demon (disease). Wood engraving by Dalziel after J. Leech.
  • Joseph Muff an unscrupulous physician and pharmacist giving child a mixture of medicine for her mother. Wood engraving by E. Landell after J. Leech, 1842 (?).
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Catalogue

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