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  • Article

Why gene editing can never eliminate disability

In a world where DNA testing and gene editing offer ways to eliminate certain disabilities, Jaipreet Virdi explores a more accepting and inclusive approach.

  • Article

Mistakes and perfect medicine

This week our anonymous GP reflects on how a mistake made in a busy, stressful environment could have had serious consequences.

  • Article

Why even plastic surgery can’t hide you from facial recognition

Once upon a time, plastic surgery allowed a few notorious criminals to evade the law. But today, sophisticated facial-recognition technology has turned dreams of anonymity to dust.

  • Article

Interpreting the Ayurvedic Man

A British Sign Language video is the latest interpretation of an unique 18th-century Nepali painting about Ayurvedic medicine.

All stories (8)

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  • A dying unscrupulous medical practitioner confesses the errors of his ways to a nurse. Coloured etching by W. Heath.
  • A dying unscrupulous medical practitioner confesses the errors of his ways to a nurse. Coloured etching by W. Heath.
  • The private medical friend, or, A warning voice to young men : an essay on the errors of youth and the secret infirmities of the generative organs, resulting from solitary habits, youthful excess, or infection, with practical observations on the premature failiure of sexual power illustrated with many cases in proof of the Author's succesful mode of treatment / by Henry Smith.
  • Eranthis hyemalis Salisb. Ranunculaceae Winter Aconite Distribution: Europe. The reason it was called Winter aconite and linked to Aconitum napellus as being just as poisonous is because plants were classified according to leaf shape in the 16th century. L'Obel's Stirpium adversaria nova (1571) and Plantarum seu stirpium historia (1576) (with a full page illustration on page 384 showing Eranthis and Aconitum together) along with the knowledge that related plants have similar medical properties caused the belief that Eranthis are as poisonous as Aconitum. They are both in Ranunculaceae and while Eranthis (like all Ranunculaceae)is toxic if eaten, it does not contain the same chemicals as Aconitum. Caesalpino (Ekphrasis, 1616) pointed out the error in classifying according to leaf shape and recommended flower shape. It contains pharmacologically interesting chemicals such as khellin, also present in Ammi visnaga. This is a vasodilator but quite toxic, but can be converted into khellin analogues such as sodium cromoglicate – used as a prophylaxis against asthma attacks – and amiodarone which has anti-arrhythmia actions so is used for atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias. It is endangered and protected in the wild (Croatia) because of over-collecting for horticulture. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Eranthis hyemalis Salisb. Ranunculaceae Winter Aconite Distribution: Europe. The reason it was called Winter aconite and linked to Aconitum napellus as being just as poisonous is because plants were classified according to leaf shape in the 16th century. L'Obel's 'Stirpium adversaria nova' published in 1571 and 'Plantarum seu stirpium historia' published 1576 (with a full page illustration on page 384 showing Eranthis and Aconitum together) along with the knowledge that related plants have similar medical properties caused the belief that Eranthis are as poisonous as Aconitum. They are both in Ranunculaceae and while Eranthis (like all Ranunculaceae) is toxic if eaten, it does not contain the same chemicals as Aconitum. Caesalpino (Ekphrasis, 1616) pointed out the error in classifying according to leaf shape and recommended flower shape. It contains pharmacologically interesting chemicals such as khellin, also present in Ammi visnaga. This is a vasodilator but quite toxic, which can be converted into khellin analogues such as sodium cromoglicate – used as a prophylaxis against asthma attacks – and amiodarone which has anti-arrhythmia actions so is used for atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias. It is endangered and protected in the wild (Croatia) because of over-collecting for horticulture. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • A sick man lamenting the uselessness of his physicians. Engraving by J.D. Hertz, 17--.
  • The doctor / words by A.J. Morris ; music by Geo le Brunn ; sung by Dan Leno.
  • The doctor / words by A.J. Morris ; music by Geo le Brunn ; sung by Dan Leno.
  • The doctor / words by A.J. Morris ; music by Geo le Brunn ; sung by Dan Leno.
  • A physician rushes into an operating theatre, exclaiming that there has been an error in diagnosis; unfortunately, the patient is already lying there, opened up. Colour photomechanical reproduction of a lithograph, c. 1900.
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