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  • Article

Theriac: An ancient brand?

The name theriac survived for around for two millennia as a pharmaceutical term. But a ‘brand’ name is not always a guarantee of quality.

  • Book extract

The history of brainwashing

Is it possible to control what other people think? In this abridged extract from his book ‘Brainwashed’, psychoanalyst and historian Daniel Pick offers us a new history of thought control.

  • Article

A history of mindfulness

Matt Drage questions how an ancient religious practice became a secular cure for stress.

  • Article

Sun salutations and yoga synthesis in India

Surya namaskars, or sun salutations, have a long history in South Asia, but their place at the heart of modern yoga is more recent.

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  • History of Chinese medicine : being a chronicle of medical happenings in China from ancient times to the present period / by K. Chimin Wong and Wu Lien-Teh.
  • Valeriana officinalis L. Valerianaceae Valerianus, Phu, Nardus sylvestris, Setwal. Distribution: Europe. Popular herbalism attributes sedation to Valerian, but this is not mentioned by Coles (1657) or Gerard (1633) or Lobel (1576) or Lyte (1578) or Dioscorides (ex Gunther, 1959) or Fuchs (1553), where he quotes Pliny, Dioscorides and Galen, or Parkinson (1640), or Pomet (1712). The English translation of Tournefort (1719-1730) covers a whole page of the uses of all the different valerians, but never mentions sedation or treating anxiety. Quincy (1718) does not mention it. Because it was used in epilepsy, for which Woodville (1792) says it was useless, Haller, in his Historia stirpium indegenarum Helvetae inchoatae (1768) advocates it for those with irritability of the nervous system, as does Thomson's London Dispensatory (1811) although he lists it as an 'antispasmodic and stimulant' and for inducing menstruation. Lindley (1838) notes (as many did) that the roots smell terrible and that this makes cats excited, and in man, in large doses, induce 'scintillations, agitation and even convulsions' so used in asthenic fever, epilepsy, chorea, hysteria and as an antihelminthic.' Fluckiger & Hanbury (1879) give a wonderful account of the history of its names, but give its use as 'stimulant and antispasmodic' as do Barton & Castle (1877). but by 1936 (Martindale's Extra Pharmacopoeia) its only use was 'Given in hysterical and neurotic conditions as a sedative. Its action has been attributed to its unpleasant smell'. The European Medicines Agency (2006) approves its use as a traditional herbal medicine for mild anxiety and sleeplessness for up to 4 weeks. Despite what is written continuously about its use in ancient Greece and Rome, the only reason for its use has been because it was thought, for a brief while, to be good for epilepsy and therefore might deal with persons of a nervous disposition because of its foul smell. It has been suggested that even its Greek name, 'Phu' came from the expression of disgust which is made when one sniffs an unpleasant odour. For 1,800 years, before the last century, no-one had thought it sedative. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Satirical veterinary frontispiece, 1771
  • Cases 9-12 from J.H. Brested's Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus
  • The Papyrus Ebers / translated from the German version by Cyril P. Bryan ... with an introduction by Professor J. Elliot Smith.
  • The Papyrus Ebers / translated from the German version by Cyril P. Bryan ... with an introduction by Professor J. Elliot Smith.
  • The Papyrus Ebers / translated from the German version by Cyril P. Bryan ... with an introduction by Professor J. Elliot Smith.
  • État de la médecine entre Homère & Hippocrate : anatomie, physiologie, pathologie, médecine militaire, histoire des écoles médicales pour faire suite à La médecine dans Homère / par Ch. Daremberg.
  • Imhotep, the vizier and physician of King Zoser and afterwards the Egyptain god of medicine / by Jamieson B. Hurry.
  • Imhotep, the vizier and physician of King Zoser and afterwards the Egyptian god of medicine / by Jamieson B. Hurry.
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