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  • 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.

  • Article

Can our minds be taken hostage?

It’s not unusual for captives to end up feeling strong bonds with their captors. But is it a matter of submission or survival?

  • Article

Can isolation lead to manipulation?

Military-funded researchers wanted to know if isolation techniques could facilitate brainwashing. One neuroscientist suggested that it might improve our own control over our minds.

  • Article

Beating the bodysnatchers

When a rise in grave robbing called for strong measures, mortsafes became the unassailable solution. Allison C. Meier explores.

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Images

  • William Doyle, Samuel Sone, and William Foster, walking on the North Bridge in Edinburgh, in uniform, each with a lady. Etching by J. Kay, 1784, after himself.
  • A fox ascends in a balloon, descends into a pit and walks off arm in arm with Lord North; representing Charles James Fox's coalition with Lord North under pressure from William Pitt the younger. Coloured etching, 1783.
  • Prome (Pyay), Burma: north view of the Great Pagoda. Coloured aquatint by William Daniell after James Kershaw, c. 1831.
  • Villiers Street, Strand: the north-east part, including the shop of William Challice, chemist and druggist; Alsopp's dining and oyster rooms; and a cigar shop. Photograph, 189-.
  • Xanthorhiza simplicissima Marshall Ranunculaceae. Yellow root. Distribution: North America, where it was discovered by the plant collector and explorer William Bartram in 1773. Austin (2004) reports that of the Native Americans, the Cherokee use the crushed plant to make a yellow dye
  • Xanthorhiza simplicissima Marshall Ranunculaceae. Yellow root. Distribution: North America, where it was discovered by the plant collector and explorer William Bartram in 1773. Yellow-root. Austin (2004) reports that of the Native Americans, the Cherokee use the crushed plant to make a yellow dye
  • Camassia leichtlinii (Baker)S.Watson Hyacinthaceae. Great Camas, Quamash. The species was named for Maximillian Leichtlin (1831-1910 of Baden , Germany, bulb enthusiast who corresponded with J.G. Baker at Kew. Bulbous herb. Distribution: North America. The bulbs of Camassia species were eaten by the Native Americans, the Nez Perce, after cooking by steaming for a day - which suggests they may be poisonous raw. They gave them to the American explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clerk, on their expedition (1804-1806) when they ran out of food. The bulbs of the similar looking 'Death camus', Toxicoscordion venenosum have been fatal when ingested by mistake (RBG Kew on-line). Steroidal saponins, which are precursors in the manufacture of steroids and cytotoxic activity has been detected in the sap of the bulbs. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Landscape at Firozabad, northern India. Coloured etching by William Hodges, 1788.
  • Northern view of Chunar from the Ganges, Uttar Pradesh. Coloured etching by William Hodges, 1785.
  • Diseases of animals acts : rabies : London, Middlesex, and district (muzzling and control of dogs) order of 1919... / I.T. Williams.
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