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  • In pictures

A medical history of smoking, from cure to killer

Today smoking is seen publicly as a deadly vice, privately perhaps as more of a guilty pleasure. Follow tobacco’s journey over the centuries from medical remedy to killer carcinogen.

  • Article

Dirt, disease and the Inspector of Nuisances

In the days when ‘bad air’ was thought to spread disease, dozens of Inspectors of Nuisances ceaselessly struggled against the perils of dirt – both visible and invisible.

  • In pictures

Hookah smoking in colonial Calcutta

Hookah smoking began in the royal courts of Mughal India, and like many other local customs, it was readily adopted by British colonials in the 18th century as a symbol of wealth and status.

  • Interview

Sniffing glue and Scientology in the DrugScope archive

Academics on hallucinogenics, kids sniffing glue, and Scientologists recruiting drug users keen to kick the habit. Delve into Wellcome’s recently acquired DrugScope archive.

All stories (52)

Images

  • "Insanity supervening on habits of intemperance".
  • Death-rates in pneumonia increase with alcoholic habits.
  • Mr. Lambkin's habits grow worse and worse', G. Cruickshank
  • The movements and habits of climbing plants / by Charles Darwin, F.R.S.
  • Drugs that enslave : the opium, morphine, chloral and hashisch habits / by H.H. Kane.
  • The standards and criminal habits used by the Inquisition in the Dominions of Spain & Portugal. Engraving, 1748.
  • Three dwarf hogoblins, two of them in monastic habits, drinking from tumblers. Aquatint by F. Goya, ca. 1797.
  • Zoology: a systematic account of the general structure, habits, instincts, and uses of the principal families of the animal kingdom / [William Benjamin Carpenter].
  • Zoology: a systematic account of the general structure, habits, instincts, and uses of the principal families of the animal kingdom / [William Benjamin Carpenter].
  • Zoology: a systematic account of the general structure, habits, instincts, and uses of the principal families of the animal kingdom / [William Benjamin Carpenter].
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