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Stories

  • Article

The rise and fall of a medical mesmerist

Uncover the fascinating story of the doctor who popularised hypnotism as a medical technique, and could name Dickens among his famous friends.

  • Article

Deadly doses and the hardest of hard drugs

The invention of the modern hypodermic syringe meant we could get high – or accidentally die – faster than before. Find out how this medical breakthrough was adapted for deadly uses.

  • Article

Bubbles of history

Since the 1960s, scientists have been able to study the air from past centuries by analysing particles in Arctic ice samples. But as the polar ice melts, the future of this research is changing.

  • Article

The hell of hay fever

After years suffering in silence, David Jesudason finds speaking out about his pollen allergy gives him hope for a future where his hay-fever symptoms are under control.

All stories (7)

Images

  • Portraits of Thomas Harvey and his 7 sons. The group of portraits set in plaster as they appeared at Rolls Park Essex. From an old photograph in the Library of the Royal College of Physicians.
  • Lobelia cardinalis L Campanulaceae Cardinal lobelia Distribution: Americas, Colombia to south-eastern Canada. The genus was named after Matthias de L’Obel or Lobel, (1538–1616), Flemish botanist and physician to James I of England, author of the great herbal Plantarum seu Stirpium Historia (1576). Lobeline, a chemical from the plant has nicotine like actions and for a while lobeline was used to help people withdraw from smoking, but was found to be ineffective. It was introduced from Virginia to John Parkinson in England by John Newton (1580-1647) a surgeon of Colyton (aka Colliton), Devon, who travelled to Virginia. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • 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.
  • Acheivement of arms, by Heather Childs; c. 1970
  • David MacLagan. Photograph after J. Watson-Gordon.
  • The dissection of the body of Tom Nero. Etching by W. Hogarth, 1751.
  • The dissection of the body of Tom Nero. Etching by W. Hogarth, 1751.
  • The examination hall of Medicine and Surgery, Savoy Place, London. Lithograph, [1885].
  • A surgical operation to remove a malignant tumour from a man's left breast and armpit in a Dublin drawing room, 1817. Watercolour, ca 1913, after a watercolour, 1817.
  • A surgical operation to remove a malignant tumour from a man's left breast and armpit in a Dublin drawing room, 1817. Watercolour, ca 1913, after a watercolour, 1817.
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