Images Dated 3rd November 2003

Hellebore flowers

Hellebore flowers (Helleborus sp.). This plant is poisonous, but preparations made from it have been used in herbal medicine for centuries. It has been used as a purgative and an anthelmintic (killing intestinal worms). When applied to the skin it has a strong irritant action. Tinctures of hellebore have also been used to treat hysteria

© SHEILA TERRY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Portrait of Avicenna, Persian physician

Portrait of Avicenna, Persian physician, born near Bukhara (now in USSR) in 980, died in Hamadan (now northwest Iran), June 1037. Avicenna was a child prodigy who became the greatest physician of medieval times. The decline of the Arabian empire into warring factions forced him into serving different masters, yet he continued to receive fame, money & opportunities to research. When Hamadan fell to a neighbouring ruler, he was obliged to serve a new master, in whose service he died during an attempt to retake the city. His textbooks on medicine were translated into Latin in the 12th century and became Europe's most important medical texts until the time of Harvey

© RIA NOVOSTI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Light split into colours by a prism

Light spectrum. Computer artwork of a beam of white light being split into its constituent colours as it passes through a glass prism. The beam of light originates from a point on the horizon at upper left. White light consists of a mixture of wavelengths of light of different colours. As the light passes into the glass, the different colours bend (refract) by different amounts and are separated into a colour spectrum

© DAVID PARKER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY