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A visual compendium of botanical sketches, many specially
photographed, providing a revealing insight into the immediate
responses of artists encountering the glories of the plant world.
While highly finished drawings and paintings frequently feature in
histories of botanical art, the preparatory sketches, first
impressions and creative thoughts on paper behind them are rarely
seen and have often remained hidden and locked away. Botanical
Sketchbooks brings these personal and vividly spontaneous records
gloriously back into the light. In a series of biographical
portraits organized thematically into four sections, the book
illuminates a range of intriguing characters, from many different
countries and cultures, including Germany, France, Italy, America,
Australia, Japan and China. Sketchbooks proper are joined by
notebooks, journals, albums, loose pieces of paper, works on
vellum, manuscripts, letters, herbarium sheets and marginalia –
even one drawing on the back of an envelope. Turning the pages of
this book will be an invitation to relive extraordinary
experiences, imagine lost worlds, and be immersed in the
endeavours, observations and motivations of the makers of such
beautiful and enchanting art.
A glorious celebration of the beauty, diversity, importance and
sheer wonder of plants, with exquisite illustrations from the
collections of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Plants feed us,
clothe us, shelter us, help transport us, and can both intoxicate
and cure us. From food staples to exotic and enchanting flowers,
plants are essential for the wellbeing of our selves and our
planet. Helen and William Bynum are expert guides to the intriguing
histories and uses of over 80 key plants. Rich in cultural,
historical, botanical and symbolic associations, the plants, from
every corner of the globe – both familiar and bizarre – have
fascinating stories to tell. Starting with foods that laid the
foundations for the development of civilizations, such as wheat,
rice and maize, and those that enliven our diet, such as saffron
and spices, sections look at plants that have helped to create our
material world, including bamboo and the oak, and crops that have
made people rich, such as tea, coffee and sugar cane. Many plants
have been used medicinally and others, for instance eucalyptus or
giant redwoods, have come to epitomize entire landscapes. Some are
the objects of obsession, including the tulip, the rose and the
lotus, and some are distinctly strange, such as the world’s
largest flower, rafflesia, which smells of rotting flesh! For
anyone interested in the extraordinary beauty and diversity of
flora around us, this stunning book, illustrated with botanical
drawings, paintings and artworks will be an inspiration and a
delight.
An unrivalled account of turning points and breakthroughs in
medical knowledge and practice, from ancient Egypt, India and China
to the latest technology. Sickness and health, birth and death,
disease and cure: medicine and our understanding of the workings of
our bodies and minds are an inextricable part of how we know who we
are. With science of healing now more vital than ever, as our
bodies face new challenges from the globalization of disease,
environmental change and increased longevity, this timely book is
the best guide ever published to medicine's achievements and its
prospects for the future. An international team of distinguished
experts provide an unrivalled account of the evolution of medical
knowledge and practice from ancient Egypt, India and China to
today's latest technology, from letting blood to keyhole surgery,
from the theory of humours to the genetic revolution, from the
stethoscope to the MRI scanner. They explain medicine's turning
points and conceptual changes in a refreshingly accessible way and
answer some key questions: how has the plague influenced the course
of human history? What effect did the pill have on the lives of
women, and on society as a whole? What challenges does medicine
face in our changing world?
Tuberculosis is characterized as a social disease and few have been
more inextricably linked with human history. There is evidence from
the archaeological record that Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its
human hosts have been together for a very long time. The very
mention of tuberculosis brings to mind romantic images of great
literary figures pouring out their souls in creative works as their
bodies were being decimated by consumption. It is a disease that at
various times has had a certain glamour associated with it. From
the medieval period to the modern day, Helen Bynum explores the
history and development of tuberculosis throughout the world,
touching on the various discoveries that have emerged about the
disease over time, and focussing on the experimental approaches of
Jean-Antoine Villemin (1827-92) and Robert Koch (1842-1910). Bynum
also examines the place tuberculosis holds in the popular
imagination and its role in various forms of the dramatic arts. The
story of tuberculosis since the 1950s is complex, and Bynum
describes the picture emerging from the World Health Organization
of the difficulties that attended the management of the disease in
the developing world. In the meantime, tuberculosis has emerged
again in the West, both among the urban underclass and in
association with a new infection - HIV. The disease has returned
with a vengeance - in drug-resistant form. The story of
tuberculosis is far from over.
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