Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events

Stories

  • Article

Jim, the horse of death

Horses’ blood was used to produce an antitoxin that saved thousands of children from dying from diphtheria, but contamination was a deadly problem. Find out how a horse called Jim was the catalyst for the beginnings of medical regulation.

  • Article

Getting under the skin

Before the invention of X-ray in 1895 there was really only one way to accurately study the human body, and that was to cut it open.

  • 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.

  • Article

When monarchs healed the sick

Our current Queen fortunately doesn’t have to spend hours laying hands on the sick to cure them. But it was a different story for monarchs of the early modern era, whose touch was a sought-after treatment for scrofula.

All stories (4)

Images

  • The St. John Ambulance Association [bandage] : registered design no. 7764 / St. John Ambulance Association.
  • War on the wounded: St. John's Ambulance Hospital.
  • The St. John Ambulance Association : [first aid bandage / sling].
  • Sir James Cantlie and Lady Cantlie (both standing) in St. John's Ambulance uniform. Photograph by F.C. Stoate, ca. 1914/1918.
  • Sir James Cantlie (standing) and Lady Cantlie (seated) in St. John's Ambulance uniform. Photograph by F.C. Stoate, ca. 1914/1918.
  • Sir James Cantlie (standing) and Lady Cantlie (seated) in St. John's Ambulance uniform. Photograph by F.C. Stoate, ca. 1914/1918.
  • Sir James Cantlie and Lady Cantlie (both standing) in St. John's Ambulance uniform. Photograph by F.C. Stoate, ca. 1914/1918.
  • First aid memory chart : designed for A.R.P. first aid workers & learners / by Harold E. Palmer, D. Litt. & W. Rougier Chapman, Surgeon Lieut. Commander R.N.V.R. ; approved by the St. John Ambulance Association.
  • [Leaflet advertising Captain Montgomery's Family "Just arrived in England" from St. John's, Newfoundland, whose 3 children were all born with"hands and feet in the shape or form of a crab." They were exhibited in the New Cut, Lambeth 10 November 1883, by manager, James Paine].
  • An enquiry into the right use and abuses of the hot, cold, and temperate baths in England ... With a particular description of ... Buxton-Bath ... To this is added I. An extract of Dr. Jones's Treaty on Buxton-Bath ... II. A letter from Dr. Clayton ... concerning the use of St. Mungus-Well. III. An abstract of some cures perform'd by the bath at Buxton ... / [Sir John Floyer].
All images (62)

Catalogue

All works (39)