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  • Article

Illuminated manuscripts, illuminating medicines

From rare bugs to exorbitantly priced plant parts, find out more about the artistic and medical uses of pigments from the past.

  • Article

The poor child’s nurse

Charming family scenes in Victorian ads for children’s medicines were at odds with some of the dangerous ingredients they contained.

  • Article

What Black women do when the NHS fails them

Sabrina-Maria Anderson explores misogynoir – hatred of Black women – within the NHS, and how women like her are consequently turning to other sources of medical support.

  • Article

Epidemic threats and racist legacies

Epidemiology is the systematic, data-driven study of health and disease in populations. But as historian Jacob Steere-Williams suggests, this most scientific of fields emerged in the 19th century imbued with a doctrine of Western imperialism – a legacy that continues to influence how we talk about disease.

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  • Teucrium scorodonia 'Crispum Marginatum' L. Lamiaceae Distribution: Europe Teucrium is named after king Teucer (who lived in the era between 1400 and 1000 BC) the first King of Troy. Dioscorides named a medicinal herb after Teucer, and Linnaeus consolidated this in 1753. Probably the Scordium or Water Germander. It was given very similar properties. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Rosmarinus officinalis L. Lamiaceae Rosemary. Woody perennial. Distribution: Mediterranean. Quincy (1718) commended the flowers for epilepsy, apoplexy, palsies, uterine obstruction, jaundice, gout, and syringed into the ear with warm water for dislodging wax. It is licensed for use in Traditional Herbal Medicines in the UK (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Rosa gallica L. Rosaceae Distribution: S & C Europe, Western Asia. Culpeper: “Red roses cool, bind, strengthen both vital and animal virtue, restores such as are in consumptions, strengthen. Notes: Rose water and distilled oil of roses have been used in herbal medicine for over a thousand years, and are still used in aromatherapy. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link Fabaceae. Common broom, Genista. Distribution: Western and central Europe. Culpeper (1650) writes: 'Genista. Broom: … clense and open the stomach, break the stone in the reins [kidneys] and bladder, help the green sickness [anaemia]. Let such as are troubled with heart qualms or faintings, forbear it, for it weakens the heart and spirit vital' and in respect of the flowers he writes: 'Broome-flowers, purge water, and are good in dropsies [now regarded as heart failure with fluid retention].' Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Hornhausen, Saxony-Anhalt: people visiting the town to partake of the medicinal waters. Engraving attributed to Matthias Merian after Valentin Wagner, 1646.
  • Select medicines and family articles prepared and sold by J. K. Clapham, dispensing chemist, and manufacturer of aerated waters, 6, Briggate, Leeds.
  • Select medicines and family articles prepared and sold by J. K. Clapham, dispensing chemist, and manufacturer of aerated waters, 6, Briggate, Leeds.
  • Spadacrene Anglica. Or, the English spaw-fountaine. Being a briefe treatise of the acide, or tart fountaine in the Forest of Knaresborow, in the West-Riding of ... Yorkshire. As also a relation of other medicinall waters in the said forest ... / [Edmund Deane].
  • Spadacrene Anglica. Or, the English spaw-fountaine. Being a briefe treatise of the acide, or tart fountaine in the Forest of Knaresborow, in the West-Riding of ... Yorkshire. As also a relation of other medicinall waters in the said forest ... / [Edmund Deane].
  • Spadacrene Anglica. Or, the English spaw-fountaine. Being a briefe treatise of the acide, or tart fountaine in the Forest of Knaresborow, in the West-Riding of ... Yorkshire. As also a relation of other medicinall waters in the said forest ... / [Edmund Deane].
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