Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events

Stories

  • Article

Drugs in Victorian Britain

Many common remedies were taken throughout the 19th century, with more people than ever using them. What was the social and cultural context of this development?

  • Article

Sacred cows and nutritional purity in India

Apoorva Sripathi explores the complex reasons behind India’s recent boom in all things dairy – beginning with a 1970s Western food-aid programme.

  • Article

Theriac: An ancient brand?

The name theriac survived for around for two millennia as a pharmaceutical term. But a ‘brand’ name is not always a guarantee of quality.

  • Book extract

The history of brainwashing

Is it possible to control what other people think? In this abridged extract from his book ‘Brainwashed’, psychoanalyst and historian Daniel Pick offers us a new history of thought control.

All stories (21)

Images

  • Asclepiad : a book of original research and observation in the science, art and literature of medicine, preventive and curative / by Benjamin Ward Richardson.
  • Men of mark : a gallery of contemporary portraits of men distinguished in the senate, the church, in science, literature and art, the army, navy, law, medicine, etc / Photographed from life by Lock and Whitfield, with brief biographical notices by Thompson Cooper.
  • Men of mark : a gallery of contemporary portraits of men distinguished in the senate, the church, in science, literature and art, the army, navy, law, medicine, etc / Photographed from life by Lock and Whitfield, with brief biographical notices by Thompson Cooper.
  • Men of mark : a gallery of contemporary portraits of men distinguished in the senate, the church, in science, literature and art, the army, navy, law, medicine, etc / Photographed from life by Lock and Whitfield, with brief biographical notices by Thompson Cooper.
  • Men of mark : a gallery of contemporary portraits of men distinguished in the senate, the church, in science, literature and art, the army, navy, law, medicine, etc / Photographed from life by Lock and Whitfield, with brief biographical notices by Thompson Cooper.
  • Men of mark : a gallery of contemporary portraits of men distinguished in the senate, the church, in science, literature and art, the army, navy, law, medicine, etc / Photographed from life by Lock and Whitfield, with brief biographical notices by Thompson Cooper.
  • Anomalies and curiosities of medicine : being an encyclopedic collection of rare and extraordinary cases, and of the most striking instances of abnormality in all branches of medicine and surgery derived from an exhaustive research of medical literature from its origin to the present day / abstracted, classified, annotated, and indexed by George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle.
  • Anomalies and curiosities of medicine : being an encyclopedic collection of rare and extraordinary cases, and of the most striking instances of abnormality in all branches of medicine and surgery derived from an exhaustive research of medical literature from its origin to the present day / abstracted, classified, annotated, and indexed by George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle.
  • Bergenia ciliata (Haw.)Sternb. Saxifraginaceae. Elephant's ears. Named for Karl August von Bergen (1704-1759), physician and botanist, professor at Viadrina University, Frankfurt. Has hairy leaves, hence ciliata. Distribution: E. Afghanistan, Himalayas, Assam. Used for fevers, diarrhoea, bruises and boils, coughs, renal stones, diabetes, heart disease, haemorrhoids, stomach disorders (Harish et al www.ijabpt.com). It was described in the 1820s so there is no early literature. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Salvia coahuilensis Fernald Lamiaceae Coahuila Sage. Perennial shrub. Distribution: Mexico. Most of the historical medicinal literature is on common sage, Salvia officinalis. The name Salvia meaning 'healthy'. Elizabeth Blackwell (1737) wrote that it had "... all the noble Properties of the other hot Plants more especially for the Head, Memory, Eyes, and all Paralytical Affections. In short, 'tis a Plant endu'd with so many and wonderful Properties, as that the assiduous use of it is said to render Men Immortal" with which Hans Sloane agreed. Its health giving properties were recorded in the aphorisms of the School of Salerno (fl 9-13th century) - quoted in the Decameron [c.1350, translated: Why should man die when Salvia grows in the Garden']. Some salvias, such as Salvia divinorum contain hallucinogenic compounds. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
All images (65)

Catalogue

All works (2.1K)