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Coleridge and the doctors
For National Poetry Day we highlighted one of the poems in our collection: a rollicking travelogue that is sadly anonymous. Much of the poetry in the Wellcome Library is anonymous – in many cases, it is amateur material bad enough… Continue reading
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Insects under the microscope
For National Insect Week, Hannah Brown shares some of her favourite insect images from Wellcome Images. Robert Hooke’s drawing of the head and eyes of a drone-fly appeared in his book, ‘Micrographia’, the first book to illustrate insects and plants… Continue reading
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How the fate of the rhino is tied to medicine
The theme of World Environment Day 2016 is the illegal wildlife trade. All five of the world’s species of rhinoceros have been brought to the edge of extinction thanks in part to a lucrative international trade in exotic animals and… Continue reading
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Diabetes and public health
The theme for World Health Day 2016 is “Beat diabetes”. How did diabetes become a public health issue? Maybe public health officers from the past can shed some light. Diabetes is a complex condition. We’ve known of its existence for… Continue reading
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A gift for Disability History Month
A Gift for Love is a film about a seven-year-old girl, Judy, played by Amanda Humby, finding her mother the perfect Christmas present with the 6 shillings and 8 pence in her money box. The only problem is that they… Continue reading
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Wounds from the Battle of Waterloo
A “damned near-run thing” said the Duke of Wellington on his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo on 18 June 1815. The Battle of Waterloo was the the bloody finale of the French Emperor’s 100-day reign. While Napoleon was exiled to… Continue reading
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Net values: mosquitoes and malaria
Malaria kills around half a million people a year, most of them children under five. World Malaria Day, 25 April, is an annual reminder that the war against this killer disease continues. Since the 19th century there has been a… Continue reading
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A high class book of reference
Here is an entertaining guide to Our Daily Fare and How to Provide It, for World Book Day. This book is aimed at the average housewife stuck at home in 1893 and limited to a “small weekly household allowance” of… Continue reading
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You are what you eat: food safety
In 2015 the focus of World Health Day – 7 April – is food safety. The Wellcome Library has a wealth of material on food (some of which is available digitally); here are some examples on food safety, from disease… Continue reading
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Dr Williams’ Pink Pills for Pale People
Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease that has been around since antiquity. It has gone by many names: phthisis (the original Greek name), consumption, the white plague – and many treatments have been offered over the years. One example of a… Continue reading