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  • Article

Female masturbation and the perils of pleasure

Dr Kate Lister exposes the brutal 19th-century ‘cures’ for women who indulged in masturbation.

  • Book extract

The meaning of happiness

What is happiness? Tiffany Watt Smith charts how its definition has changed over time, from chance emotion to something that can be measured and controlled.

  • Long read

The ambivalence of air

Daisy Lafarge investigates the effects of air quality and pressure on body and mind, exploring air as cure, but one with contradictions.

  • Article

The island of unclaimed bodies

In New York, those who live and die on the extreme edges of society are buried on an isolated island, often forgotten and unmourned. But recent legal changes aim to reduce stigma and restore their dignity.

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  • On the diseases and derangements of the nervous system. In their primary forms and in their modifications by age, sex, constitution, hereditary predisposition, excesses, general disorder, and organic disease : Marshall Hall / [Marshall Hall].
  • On the diseases and derangements of the nervous system. In their primary forms and in their modifications by age, sex, constitution, hereditary predisposition, excesses, general disorder, and organic disease : Marshall Hall / [Marshall Hall].
  • Disease exterminated from the system and every form of nervous, muscular, or organic weakness cured without drugs ... : Harness' electropathic belt : it imparts new life and vigour to the debilitated / the Medical Battery Company Limited.
  • Disease exterminated from the system and every form of nervous, muscular, or organic weakness cured without drugs ... : Harness' electropathic belt : it imparts new life and vigour to the debilitated / the Medical Battery Company Limited.
  • The nervous system of the human body: as explained in a series of papers read before the Royal Society of London; with an appendix of cases and consultations on nervous diseases ... / [Sir Charles Bell].
  • The nervous system of the human body: as explained in a series of papers read before the Royal Society of London; with an appendix of cases and consultations on nervous diseases ... / [Sir Charles Bell].
  • The nervous system of the human body: as explained in a series of papers read before the Royal Society of London; with an appendix of cases and consultations on nervous diseases ... / [Sir Charles Bell].
  • Diseases of the nervous system. Care of the loss of speech and its association with partial destruction of left-anterior lobe of the brain (localization of speech centres).
  • Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi Lamiaceae. Baikal skullcap. Distribution: China. There are several hundred species of Scutellaria, also known as skull caps, so correct identification is important - in particular from Scutellaria lateriflora an American species known as Blue skullcap. The latter is used as an abortifacient and to expel placenta by the Cherokee and for cleaning the throat by the Iroquois (Austin, 2004). Much vaunted as a treatment for rabies with unlikely statistics (1,400 cases cured by one doctor alone). Also as ‘antispasmodic, nervine, [for] chorea, convulsions, tetanus, tremors, delirium tremens, [and as a] diaphoretic and diuretic'. Toxicity symptoms include mental confusion, stupor, headache, vertigo, photophobia, dilated pupils, difficulty in micturition, bradycardia, tremulousness and languor, followed by wakefulness and restlessness (Milspaugh, 1974). Hutchens (1991) reported that it reduces sexual desire and was used for almost every nervous illness. Scutellaria baicalensis contains baicalin, baicalein and wogonin (European Medicines Agency, September 2010). It is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for treating inflammation, cancer, bacterial and viral infections of the lungs and gut and is one of the '50 Chinese herbs' in the lists of some authors. Scutellaria lateriflora (combined with Verbena officinalis, Passiflora incarnata and the seed of Avena sativa (oats) is licensed for use in Britain as a herbal medicine for temporary relief of mild symptoms of stress such as mild anxiety and to aid sleep, based upon traditional use only. Scutellaria baicalensis is not licensed for use in the UK (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Three contributions to the sexual theory / by Prof. Sigmund Freud.Authorized translation by A. A. Brill, with introduction by James J. Putnam.
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