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Stories

  • Article

How electromagnetic therapy inspired me

Poet Sarah James explores how repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treated her depression and influenced her art.

  • In pictures

A medical history of smoking, from cure to killer

Today smoking is seen publicly as a deadly vice, privately perhaps as more of a guilty pleasure. Follow tobacco’s journey over the centuries from medical remedy to killer carcinogen.

  • Article

A flat-packed forest

The regular ritual of creating seasonally changing mini-forests for her indoor cats brought Abi Palmer a focus for reflection while the cats explored.

  • In pictures

Advice for (medieval) old age

Whether it was an abstemious, pious preparation for death or drinking gold in the quest for eternal life, those seeking advice on what best to do in their later years were never short of inspiration.

All stories (45)

Images

  • De Witt's Kidney & Bladder Pills : diuretic stimulant - urinary antiseptic.
  • De Witt's Kidney & Bladder Pills : diuretic stimulant - urinary antiseptic.
  • De Witt's Kidney & Bladder Pills : diuretic stimulant - urinary antiseptic.
  • De Witt's Kidney & Bladder Pills : diuretic stimulant - urinary antiseptic.
  • Anacardone (Nikethamide B.D.H.) : cardiovascular and respiratory stimulant of high activity and low toxicity.
  • Lobelia tupa L Campanulaceae Tabaco del Diablo [Devil's tobacco]. Distribution: Central Chile. Dried leaves are smoked as a hallucinogen by the Mapuchu Indians of Chile. It was also used as a respiratory stimulant. 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. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • A fierce battle between the supporters of John Brown (Bruno), in favour of treatment with stimulants, and those of F.J.V. Broussais, in favour of bloodletting. Pen drawing.
  • A fierce battle between the supporters of John Brown (Bruno), in favour of treatment with stimulants, and those of F.J.V. Broussais, in favour of bloodletting. Pen drawing.
  • A fierce battle between the supporters of John Brown (Bruno), in favour of treatment with stimulants, and those of F.J.V. Broussais, in favour of bloodletting. Pen drawing.
  • Electronic nerve stimulator
All images (346)

Catalogue

All works (1.6K)