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Stories

  • Article

The soul in the stomach

A 17th-century physician’s controversial theory about the link between the emotions and the stomach reminds us that we shouldn’t ignore our ‘gut feelings’.

  • Article

Martina Amati on ‘Under’

Visitors experiencing Under by Martina Amati

  • Book extract

The psychology of Ouija

Explore the science behind table tilting and Ouija boards, and discover how the unscrupulous still make money from exploiting the ‘ideomotor’ effect.

  • Article

The tale of the toxic kidneys

In 1954 a serendipitous coming together of skills and circumstances allowed the first successful organ transplant to take place. Read how Richard Herrick’s life was prolonged by his identical twin’s generosity.

All stories (6)

Images

  • A. D. Waller, physiologist
  • William Sharpey(1802 - 1880). Physiologist.
  • Portrait of Claude Bernard (1813-1878), French physiologist
  • Claude Bernard, physiologist / by J.M.D. Olmsted.
  • Mrs Burdon Sanderson, wife of J Burdon Sanderson, physiologist.
  • Sir Victor Alexander Haden Horsley (1857-1916), surgeon and physiologist. Oil painting by Solomon Joseph Solomon, ca. 1897.
  • X-ray machine used by the physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon to investigate the mechanical process of digestion, 1896/1898. Colour photograph.
  • Solanum laciniatum Aiton Solanaceae. Kangaroo Apple. Evergreen shrub. Distribution: New Zealand and the east coast of Australia. It contains steroidal saponins that can be converted into steroids, including progesterone, oestrogens, cortisone, prednisolone etc. In 1943, Professor Russell Marker discovered a method of obtaining an unsaturated steroidal saponine, diosogenin, from Mexican yam (Dioscorea mexicana), which can easily and cheaply be converted into steroids, such as prednisone and progesterone, reducing the price of steroid production to a fraction (0.5%) of its former cost. For 20 years drug companies showed little interest, and it was only as a result of Professor Marker forming his own company, and the concerted efforts of several gynaecologists, physiologists and birth-control advocates, that the contraceptive pill was ‘born’ in 1960. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Sir Henry Hallett Dale (1878-1968), physiologist and chairman of the Wellcome Trust. Oil painting by "H. Wilson" (i.e. Helen Mary Graham Wilson, Mrs Rosenfield) after Sir James Gunn.
  • Sir Henry Hallett Dale (1878-1968), physiologist and chairman of the Wellcome Trust. Oil painting by "H. Wilson" (i.e. Helen Mary Graham Wilson, Mrs Rosenfield) after Sir James Gunn.
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Catalogue

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