51 results
- Archives and manuscripts
The Royal College of Physicians of London
The Royal College of Physicians of LondonDate: late 17th century - mid 19th centuryReference: MS.5648- Archives and manuscripts
Stanhope, Philip, 1st Earl of Chesterfield (1584-1656)
Stanhope, Philip, 1st Earl of Chesterfield (1584-1656)Date: Mid 17th century - late 17th centuryReference: MSS.761-762- Archives and manuscripts
Besançon: École de Médecine
Besançon: École de MédecineDate: late 17th century - late 18th centuryReference: MS.1154- Archives and manuscripts
Financial documentation
Date: 17th century - 18th centuryReference: MS.7633/4-7Part of: Sloane, Sir Hans M.D., P.R.C.P., F.R.S., (1660-1753), physician, assembler of the collection that formed the nucleus of the British Museum- Archives and manuscripts
Miscellaneous items
Date: 17th century - 18th centuryReference: MS.7633/8-10Part of: Sloane, Sir Hans M.D., P.R.C.P., F.R.S., (1660-1753), physician, assembler of the collection that formed the nucleus of the British Museum- Archives and manuscripts
Medical Notebook
D-, F. B. M., fl.1676Date: Late 17th centuryReference: MS.MSL.19- Archives and manuscripts
English Language Autograph Letters: Letherby-Lockhart
Letheby, H. (Henry), 1816-1876.Date: Mid 17th Century to Late 19th CenturyReference: MS.8886- Archives and manuscripts
List of herbs [and other medicines]
Date: c. late 16th century-early 17th centuryReference: MS.8372- Digital Images
- Online
Zantedeschia aethiopica (L)Spreng. Calla lily, Arum lily. Half hardy annual. Distribution: South Africa. The genus name commemorates Giovanni Zantedeschi (1773-1846) an Italian physician and botanist. Born in Molina he studied medicine in Verona and Padua. He corresponded with the German botanist, Kurt Sprengel, who named the genus Zantedeschia in his honour in 1826, separating it from Calla, where, as C. aethiopica, it had been previously described by Linnaeus. He had broad interests, including the effect of different parts of the spectrum of light on plant growth, reporting in 1843, that red, orange and yellow light are heliotropically inactive. The botanic museum in Molina is dedicated to his memory. Aethiopica, merely means 'African'. The leaves are used as a warm poultice for headaches in ‘muthi’ medicine. It has become an invasive weed in parts of Australia. It was introduced, as a greenhouse plant, to Europe in the mid-17th century, where the long lasting flowers are popular in flower arranging and for weddings and funerals – a curious combination (Oakeley, 2012). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley- Books
Codices Vossiani chymici / décrits par P.C. Boeren.
Boeren, P. C., 1909-1994.Date: 1975- Archives and manuscripts
Fox family papers
Fox, Joseph I (1729-1785)Date: Late 17th century - mid 20th centuryReference: PP/FOX- Digital Images
- Online
Atropa belladonna L. Solanaceae. Deadly nightshade. Dwale. Morella, Solatrum, Hound's berries, Uva lupina, Cucubalus, Solanum lethale. Atropa derives from Atropos the oldest of the three Fates of Greek mythology who cut the thread of Life (her sisters Clotho and Lachesis spun and measured the thread, respectively). belladonna, literally, means 'beautiful lady' and was the Italian name for it. Folklore has it that Italian ladies put drops from the plant or the fruits in their eyes to make themselves doe-eyed, myopic and beautiful. However, this is not supported by the 16th and 17th century literature, where no mention is ever made of dilated pupils (or any of the effects of parasympathetic blockade). Tournefort (1719) says 'The Italians named this plant Belladonna, which in their language signifies a beautiful woman, because the ladies use it much in the composition of their Fucus [rouge or deceit or cosmetic] or face paint.' Parkinson says that the Italian ladies use the distilled juice as a fucus '... peradventure [perhaps] to take away their high colour and make them looke paler.' I think it more likely that they absorbed atropine through their skin and were slightly 'stoned' and disinhibited, which made them beautiful ladies in the eyes of Italian males. Distribution: Europe, North Africa, western Asia. Culpeper (1650) writes: 'Solanum. Nightshade: very cold and dry, binding … dangerous given inwardly … outwardly it helps the shingles, St Antonie's Fire [erysipelas] and other hot inflammation.' Most of the 16th, 17th and 18th century herbals recommend it topically for breast cancers. Poisonous plants were regarded as 'cold' plants as an excess of them caused death and the body became cold. They were regarded as opposing the hot humour which kept us warm and alive. Poultices of Belladonna leaves are still recommended for muscle strain in cyclists, by herbalists. Gerard (1633) writes that it: 'causeth sleep, troubleth the mind, bringeth madnesse if a few of the berries be inwardly taken, but if more be taken they also kill...'. He was also aware that the alkaloids could be absorbed through the skin for he notes that a poultice of the leaves applied to the forehead, induces sleep, and relieves headache. The whole plant contains the anticholinergic alkaloid atropine, which blocks the peripheral actions of acetylcholine in the parasympathetic nervous system. Atropine is a racemic mixture of d- and l- hyoscyamine. Atropine, dropped into the eyes, blocks the acetylcholine receptors of the pupil so it no longer constricts on exposure to bright light - so enabling an ophthalmologist to examine the retina with an ophthalmoscope. Atropine speeds up the heart rate, reduces salivation and sweating, reduces gut motility, inhibits the vertigo of sea sickness, and is used to block the acetylcholine receptors to prevent the effects of organophosphorous and other nerve gas poisons. It is still has important uses in medicine. Atropine poisoning takes three or for days to wear off, and the hallucinations experienced by its use are described as unpleasant. We have to be content with 'madness', 'frenzie' and 'idle and vain imaginations' in the early herbals to describe the hallucinations of atropine and related alkaloids as the word 'hallucination' in the sense of a perception for which there is no external stimulus, was not used in English until 1646 (Sir T. Browne, 1646). It is a restricted herbal medicine which can only be sold in premises which are registered pharmacies and by or under the supervision of a pharmacist (UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Dr Henry Oakeley- Pictures
A Dutch physician taking the pulse of a female patient, a urine flask in a wicker basket is on a table beside them. Engraving by P. Basan, 16--, after G. Ter Borch, the younger.
Ter Borch, Gerrit, the younger, 1617-1662.Date: 1700-1799Reference: 21645i- Books
Rape in the republic, 1609-1725 : formulating Dutch identity / by Amanda Pipkin.
Pipkin, Amanda (Amanda Cathryn)Date: 2013- Pictures
A patient jumping up and screaming with pain while a surgeon is treating his leg; an onlooking woman seems to be pleading with the surgeon. Etching by J.G. van Vliet, c. 1630.
Reference: 22556i- Books
Un libertino accademico del Cimento : Antonio Oliva / Ugo Baldini.
Baldini, Ugo, 1943-Date: 1977- Videos
Rebel physician : Nicholas Culpeper's fight for medical freedom.
Date: 2008- Books
Turquet de Mayerne as baroque physician : the art of medical portraiture / Brian Nance.
Nance, Brian.Date: 2001- Pictures
- Online
A tooth-drawer proudly holding up a tooth he has just extracted, the patient holding his jaw in the background. Engraving by J.P. Le Bas after D. Teniers II.
Teniers, David, 1610-1690.Date: [1777]Reference: 16474i- Books
- Online
Doctors out of practice / by J. Cordy Jeaffreson.
Jeaffreson, John Cordy, 1831-1901.Date: [1884]- Books
Botany in the Low Countries : (end of the 15th century - ca. 1650) Plantin-Moretus Museum exhibition / [editors F. de Nave and D. Imhof].
Date: 1993- Books
Leerer Raum in Minervas Haus : experimentelle Naturlehre an der Universität Leiden, 1675 - 1715 / Gerhard Wiesenfeldt.
Wiesenfeldt, Gerhard.Date: 2002- Books
Mutual admiration : British and Dutch medicine around the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 with a section on the discords in the College of Physicians, and some of the doctors who attended the King and Queen.
Date: [1988]- Books
Eindelijk! De Lairesse : klassieke schoonheid in de Gouden Eeuw / redactie: Josien Beltman, Paul Knolle, Quirine van der Meer Mohr.
Date: [2016]- Books
- Online
Republic of women : rethinking the republic of letters in the seventeenth century / Carol Pal.
Pal, CarolDate: 2012