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Stories

  • Article

London, city of lost hospitals

Come on the trail of hundreds of ghost hospitals, whose remnants hold clues to medical treatments of the past.

  • Article

Deadly doses and the hardest of hard drugs

The invention of the modern hypodermic syringe meant we could get high – or accidentally die – faster than before. Find out how this medical breakthrough was adapted for deadly uses.

  • 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

The tradesman who confronted the pestilence

The City of London, 1665. As the Great Plague hits the capital, John New faces a deadly dilemma.

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Images

  • Royal Gun Factory, Woolwich Arsenal, London: the factory buildings seen from above. Lithograph by G. Clausen, 1917.
  • Royal Gun Factory, Woolwich Arsenal, London: a big gun barrel being turned on a lathe. Lithograph by G. Clausen, 1917.
  • Royal Gun Factory, Woolwich Arsenal, London: workers in the factory lifting a metal gun barrel with a crane. Lithograph by G. Clausen, 1917.
  • Royal Gun Factory, Woolwich Arsenal, London: a radial overhead crane for carrying heavy artillery pieces in different sectors of the factory. Lithograph by G. Clausen, 1917.
  • Royal Postgraduate Medical School and M.R.C. Unit, London, England: exterior. Photograph by H. Windsley, 1972.
  • Royal College of Surgeons, circa 1813. Compare with Sir Zachary Cope, the History of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, London 1959, figure 58.
  • A general list of the members of the Royal College of Surgeons in England : members who reside and practise, or who have resided and practised, in or within seven miles of the City of London ... members who do not reside or practise, in or within seven miles of the City of London.
  • Hyacinthoides non-scripta (L.) Chouard ex Rothm. Asparagaceae Bluebell. Perennial bulbous plant. Distribution W. Europe to N. Portugal. Seed and plants from wild stock are protected in England and Wales and all trade in them is prohibited, despite their abundance. All parts of the plant are poisonous and the sap can cause dermatitis. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Camellia sasanqua Thunb. Theaceae. Christmas camellia. Camellia commemorates Georg Josef Kamel (1661-1706), Jesuit pharmacist from Moravia (Czech Republic) who worked in the Philippines and sent plants to John Ray in England (Oakeley, 2012) Evergreen shrub. Distribution: Japan and China. Leaves are used in Japan to make tea (normally made from C. sinensis) and the seeds to make the edible tea seed oil. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Lobelia cardinalis L Campanulaceae Cardinal lobelia Distribution: Americas, Colombia to south-eastern Canada. The genus was named after Matthias de L’Obel or Lobel, (1538–1616), Flemish botanist and physician to James I of England, author of the great herbal Plantarum seu Stirpium Historia (1576). Lobeline, a chemical from the plant has nicotine like actions and for a while lobeline was used to help people withdraw from smoking, but was found to be ineffective. It was introduced from Virginia to John Parkinson in England by John Newton (1580-1647) a surgeon of Colyton (aka Colliton), Devon, who travelled to Virginia. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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