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  • Article

A history of mindfulness

Matt Drage questions how an ancient religious practice became a secular cure for stress.

  • Article

Tripping for spiritualism and science

Getting high in the name of religion or creativity has been practised for centuries. Now it seems hallucinogenics could help treat mental illnesses too.

  • Article

Yoga adapts to time and place

A yoga teacher in 1930s India inspired today’s transnational practice with his spectacular fusion of tradition and innovation.

  • Article

Sun salutations and yoga synthesis in India

Surya namaskars, or sun salutations, have a long history in South Asia, but their place at the heart of modern yoga is more recent.

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  • Hacquetia epipactis DC Apiaceae. Small herbaceous perennial. No common name except Hacquetia Distribution: Europe. Named for the Austrian physician, Balthasar (or Belsazar) Hacquet (1739/40-1815). He studied medicine in Vienna, was a surgeon in the brutal Seven Years War (1756-1763) – a world-wide war in which up to 1,400,000 people died. Later he was professor at the University of Lemberg (1788-1810). He wrote widely on many scientific disciplines including geology. Parkinson (1640) grouped it with Helleborus and Veratrum, calling it 'Epipactis Matthioli, Matthiolus, his bastard black hellebore' but does not give any uses. It has no medicinal properties. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Zantedeschia aethiopica (L)Spreng. Calla lily, Arum lily. Half hardy annual. Distribution: South Africa. The genus name commemorates Giovanni Zantedeschi (1773-1846) an Italian physician and botanist. Born in Molina he studied medicine in Verona and Padua. He corresponded with the German botanist, Kurt Sprengel, who named the genus Zantedeschia in his honour in 1826, separating it from Calla, where, as C. aethiopica, it had been previously described by Linnaeus. He had broad interests, including the effect of different parts of the spectrum of light on plant growth, reporting in 1843, that red, orange and yellow light are heliotropically inactive. The botanic museum in Molina is dedicated to his memory. Aethiopica, merely means 'African'. The leaves are used as a warm poultice for headaches in ‘muthi’ medicine. It has become an invasive weed in parts of Australia. It was introduced, as a greenhouse plant, to Europe in the mid-17th century, where the long lasting flowers are popular in flower arranging and for weddings and funerals – a curious combination (Oakeley, 2012). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Jean Sylvain Bailly, Mayor of Paris, with his mistress, both represented as chickens. Etching, 1791.
  • Seven clergymen watch as a physician bathes the feet of a sick, aristocratic lady; suggesting the uncertainty of the clergy faced with the ousting of the aristocracy in France. Coloured etching by S.J., 1791.
  • Paul Ferdinand Gachet. Etching by V. van Gogh, 1890.
  • Paul Ferdinand Gachet. Etching by V. van Gogh, 1890.
  • Paul Ferdinand Gachet. Etching by V. van Gogh, 1890.
  • A map of Paraguay and surrounding area, illustrating where cinchona (quinine) was allegedly first discovered in 1626(?). Etching by D.V. Rossi.
  • Booklets: The Wellcome Historical Medical Library...
  • History of the microscope..., December, 1948
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