Health & Medicine

Bowls like this one were used to catch the blood released by bleeding. The appearance of blood was a useful diagnostic tool for physicians, who examined it for clues about the body's internal state. This large bowl was…

Gold painted metal can and lid both with extensive dark blue lettering and decoration.The main label reads "LANGLEBERT'S PSYLLIUM SEEDS." The can is full of small brown psyllium seeds, a source of soluble dietary fiber.

In a small workshop a medical alchemist tends to the foot of a seated patient while the man's wife and child look on. At left, an assistant grinds a substance--likely a medicine or salve--in a small mortar and pestle.…

Lecture notes recorded by Jean-Baptiste-Alexandre Stroehlin in Paris when he attended lectures given by Matthieu Orfila. The lectures are organized around specific chemicals, thus there are headings such as "Carbonates"…

Select plates digitized including drawings of plant specimens, maps illustrating locale of plant specimens as well as magnified illustrations of plant parts.

This photogravure by Gebbie & Husson Co. Ltd. reproduces Thomas Eakins' painting of Dr. Agnew lecturing to a crowd during surgery. Eakins depicted Dr. David Hayes Agnew lecturing during an operation before an audience…

Depicts saffron, meadow-sweet, hedge-mustard, and hedge-nettle.

Depicts henbane, calamint, sage, and mustard.

Depicts thorn-apple, asparagus, marsh mallow, and hop.

Depicts plantain, white poppy, pennyroyal, and bearsfoot.

Depicts juniper, black currant, white horehound, and coltsfoot.

Depicts scurvy-grass, colchicum or meadow saffron, garlic, and horse-radish.

Depicts bittersweet, chamomile, caraway, and Herb Robert.

Depicts hemlock, barberry, elder, and oak.

Depicts stavesacre, golden rod, lime, and bear berry.

Depicts buckthorn, fennel, tansy, and wood sorrel.

Depicts parsley, valerian, foxglove, and crowfoot.

Depicts dill, peppermint, spurge-laurel, and black bryony.

Depicts a mad dog, scorpion, rattlesnake, tarantula, centipede, and copperhead.

Depicts peony, St. John's wort, aconite or monkshood, and lily of the valley.

Depicts mullein, rosemary, nettle, and deadly nightshade.

Portrait of Charles Frederick Chandler (1836-1925), an industrial chemist whose research concerning sugar refining, gas manufacturing, and chemical education greatly impacted public sanitation and health.

Charles…

General view of two employees at work in an Agricultural Research Service Drug Laboratory, with view of assorted laboratory glassware and apparatus. Part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, such laboratories commonly…

General view of two employees at work in a Bureau of Chemistry Drug Laboratory, with view of assorted laboratory glassware and apparatus. Part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, such laboratories commonly…