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(Image: Wellcome Library, London)

Eek! This is how 18th-century artist James Dunthorne depicted ague and fever in an age when today’s cures didn’t exist. The hairy monster in the middle represents a patient wracked by fever. To the left, a blue beast representing feverish, shivering ague ensnares his victim as he tries to warm his chills beside the fire. To the right, a doctor writes prescriptions to try to keep the monsters at bay.

The image is one among from today by Wellcome Images. Including works by such celebrated artists as and , they date back to a on papyrus.

Catherine Draycott, head of Wellcome Images, says the collection covers themes beyond what is commonly thought of as medicine. “It covers a broad range of subjects and comes from all over the world, including China, India and South America, so it’s not Western-centric,” she says.

The images include van Gogh’s etching of Dr Gachet, his only known work in that medium, a , and the iconic , which helped establish how cholera spreads in water.