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Stories

  • Article

The secret lives of Britain’s first Black physicians

Dr Annabel Sowemimo explores the web of connections between early Black British doctors, the role of empire in West Africa and the pernicious reach of scientific racism.

  • Article

Doctor in the house

A house is not always a home – sometimes it’s impermanent, impersonal. But other aspects of the itinerant life can be the source of a sense of home.

  • Book extract

Ayurveda: Knowledge for long life

The story of medicine in India is rich and complex. Aarathi Prasad investigates how it came to be this way.

  • 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.

All stories (26)

Images

  • AIDS for AIDS, a useful information sheet for physicians with numerous facts and figures by the National AIDS Control Organisation, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Goverment of India. Colour lithograph, ca. 1995.
  • Trifolium rubens L. Leguminosae. [Note the Family Leguminosae is preferred over Family Fabaceae as the former allows all the legumes to be in one Family and not three - one Family being the current consensus among botanists]. Red Feather Clover. Distribution: Europe. The white clover, Trifolium repens, is listed as a treatment for arthritis by Linnaeus (1782). This and Trifolium pratense, Red Clover, are the ones most used for pastures. All the clovers have root nodules which fix nitrogen from the air into the soil so have an important role in ensuring soil fertility. Trifolium rubens has the same nitrogen fixing ability, and is used as an ornamental garden plant where it still acts to improve fertility. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Fatsia japonica (Thunb.) Decne. & Planch. Araliaceae False castor oil plant. Distribution: Japan, South Korea. Not even in the same family as the castor oil plant, Ricinus communis. An ornamental plant, Fatsia from the Japanese word for 'eight' hachi referring to the eight-lobed leaf. The sap can cause dermatitis. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • The family physician: being a collection of useful family remedies / [Hugh Smith].
  • W. Buchan's "Proposals for printing ... the family physician"
  • W. Buchan's "Proposals for printing ... the family physician"
  • A generous physician refusing money for services rendered from a poor family. Mezzotint.
  • A male patient surrounded by his family discussing his illness with a physician. Engraving.
  • A male patient surrounded by his family discussing his illness with a physician. Engraving.
  • John Coakley Lettsom, physician, with his family, in the garden of Grove Hill, Camberwell.
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