Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events

Stories

  • Article

The metamorphosis of masturbation

Throughout history, medics and campaigners have tried to stamp out masturbation – but is modern science transforming its reputation?

  • Article

Parasites and pests from the medieval to the modern

Humans have been reluctant hosts to a plethora of unpleasant parasites for centuries. And medieval evidence shows our modern distaste for these little irritations is just as ancient.

  • Book extract

The shape of thought

Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s description of the moment in 1887 when he saw a brain cell for the first time never fails to move neuroscientist Richard Wingate to tears. Here he captures that enduring sense of wonder.

All stories (3)

Images

  • Crusade against sexually transmitted disease by visiting the Museo Roca in Spain. Colour lithograph by Museo Roca, 193- (?).
  • Mediaeval crusaders holding up the battle-standard of a crusade against cancer. Colour lithograph by Aqullò, 1965.
  • Join the crusade against bread waste : the bread code ... / Ministry of Food.
  • Join the crusade against bread waste : the bread code ... / Ministry of Food.
  • King Edward I of England, wounded in the arm during a Crusade, has the poison sucked from the wound by Queen Eleanor. Lithograph by J. Linnell, 1845, after J. Severn.
  • Women eject a drunk and publican from a bar in a crusade against drunkenness. Wood-engraving by A. Joliet, c. 1875, after Castelli.
  • Coat of arms of the crusader Melchior Asinari. Engraving.
  • Saint Denis presenting a standard to a crusader (Godefroi de Bouillon?). Engraving.
  • A knight who has returned home from the Crusades sits in his bedchamber bemoaning the fact that he has left the key to his wife's chastity belt in Jerusalem. Ink drawing by B. Roy, c.1900.
  • Chessmen (chess pieces) in the form of Saracens and Crusaders.
All images (48)

Catalogue

All works (280)