By Atalanta Grant-Suttie Some people think palmistry (or chiromancy as it is sometimes known) is hocus pocus and that it is all nonsense. How can lines and bumps in the palm of the hand foretell your future? Yet, you can find palm readers all over the world; you may have one in your area. Palmistry […]
Tag Archives: 1600s
May
10
“Beyond Chicken Soup” with a Taste of NLM
posted by Circulating Now
By Karen Falk and Jeffrey S. Reznick During the past few years, the NLM History of Medicine Division has loaned items from its collections for display in a number of prominent public exhibitions, at venues including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. Most recently, several rare books and […]
April
14
Some of the Most Beautiful Herbals
posted by Circulating Now
By Michael North This post is the sixth in a series exploring the National Library of Medicine’s rich and varied collection of “herbals,” which are books devoted to the description of medicinal plants (and sometimes other natural substances) with instructions on how to use them to treat illness. The Library’s herbals are some of the […]
February
03
Early Journals: What’s in a Name?
posted by Circulating Now
By Atalanta Grant-Suttie The journal is so much a part of the current apparatus of scholarly communication that one never really thinks where and how the term might have originated. The origins of the word “journal” derive from Old French, Middle English and Late Latin in the fourteen century. However, perhaps the concept of the […]
October
30
A Portal of Death
posted by Circulating Now
By Elizabeth Mullen Are you ready to walk and talk with the skeletons? It’s Halloween again. As the nights get longer and leaves turn and fall, many will spend the dark evening communing with spooks, specters and skeletons and pondering frightening images of death. The ‘portal of death’ above is the Frontispiece from Bernardino Genga’s […]
May
14
The Earliest Herbals
posted by Circulating Now
By Michael North This post is the first in a series exploring the National Library of Medicine’s rich and varied collection of “herbals,” which are books devoted to the description of medicinal plants (and sometimes other natural substances) with instructions on how to use them to treat illness. The Library’s herbals are some of the […]
October
31
Costume Conundrum?
posted by circulating now
By Ginny A. Roth Still looking for a costume idea for Halloween? You have a few hours left to make this important decision. There’s always the option of going as the ubiquitous vampire. Or you can grab a cape and dress as one of the many super-heroes protecting our streets during the scariest night of the year. […]
