Stories
- Article
Drugs in Victorian Britain
Many common remedies were taken throughout the 19th century, with more people than ever using them. What was the social and cultural context of this development?
- Article
Sacred cows and nutritional purity in India
Apoorva Sripathi explores the complex reasons behind India’s recent boom in all things dairy – beginning with a 1970s Western food-aid programme.
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Unravelling genetic origins from the potato to cinchona
Starting with the humble potato, Nataly Allasi Canales reveals how researchers unearth the genetic origins of modern plant varieties, and explains why their work is so important for biodiversity.
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Hamlet, the melancholic Prince of Denmark
Hamlet clearly demonstrates an excess of black bile and is arguably the most famous literary melancholic.
Catalogue
- Digital Images
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Salvia coahuilensis Fernald Lamiaceae Coahuila Sage. Perennial shrub. Distribution: Mexico. Most of the historical medicinal literature is on common sage, Salvia officinalis. The name Salvia meaning 'healthy'. Elizabeth Blackwell (1737) wrote that it had "... all the noble Properties of the other hot Plants more especially for the Head, Memory, Eyes, and all Paralytical Affections. In short, 'tis a Plant endu'd with so many and wonderful Properties, as that the assiduous use of it is said to render Men Immortal" with which Hans Sloane agreed. Its health giving properties were recorded in the aphorisms of the School of Salerno (fl 9-13th century) - quoted in the Decameron [c.1350, translated: Why should man die when Salvia grows in the Garden']. Some salvias, such as Salvia divinorum contain hallucinogenic compounds. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley- Books
- Online
History of a voyage to the land of Brazil, otherwise called America : containing the navigation and the remarkable things seen on the sea by the author; the behavior of Villegagnon in that country; the customs and strange ways of life of the American savages; together with the description of various animals, trees, plants, and other singular things completely unknown over here / Jean de Léry ; translation and introduction by Janet Whatley.
Léry, Jean de, 1534-1611Date: 1992, ©1990- Digital Images
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Salvia nemorosa L. Lamiaceae Woodland sage. Balkan clary Distribution: Central Europe, Western Asia. Most of the historical medicinal literature is on common sage, Salvia officinalis. The name Salvia meaning 'healthy'. Elizabeth Blackwell (1737) wrote that it had "... all the noble Properties of the other hot Plants more especially for the Head, Memory, Eyes, and all Paralytical Affections. In short, 'tis a Plant endu'd with so many and wonderful Properties, as that the assiduous use of it is said to render Men Immortal" with which Hans Sloane agreed. Linnaeus (1782) also: 'Timor, Languor, Leucorrhoea, Senectus [fear, tiredness, white vaginal discharge, old age]'. Its health giving and immortality conferring properties were recorded in the aphorisms of the School of Salerno (fl 9-13th century) - quoted in the Decameron [c.1350, translated: Why should man die when Salvia grows in the Garden']. Some salvias, such as Salvia divinorum contain hallucinogenic compounds. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley- Archives and manuscripts
Lanoxin [first marketed UK in 1939]
Date: c.1958-c.1984Reference: WF/M/PL/172Part of: Wellcome Foundation Ltd- Books
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The poisonous, noxious, and suspected plants of our fields and woods / by Anne Pratt ; published under the direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education, appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Pratt, Anne, 1806-1893.Date: [1857 or 1866?]