Written by his friend, the physician John Baron (1786–1851), this laudatory biography of the 'father of immunology' did much to enhance the reputation of Edward Jenner (1749–1823) upon its publication in two volumes between 1827 and 1838. The work covers Jenner's personal and professional life both before and after his development of the vaccine for smallpox, as well as touching on the vaccine's reception and use around the world. Thoroughly explaining the history and facts of vaccination, Baron established himself as an authority on the subject. Although criticised by some for its unquestioning praise of Jenner's genius, the work is valuable for its use of primary sources, drawing heavily on correspondence and personal notes, excerpts of which appear throughout the text. Volume 1, published in 1827, focuses on Jenner's early life and the history and science of vaccination.

In medical terms, 'mineral water' was, in the early nineteenth century, any water that appeared to have an effect on human health. British physicians often prescribed mineral waters from particular locations - most commonly those at Bath - for a variety of illnesses. However, there was little available information on the chemical composition of these waters, and extant manuals were often inaccurate. This report by the physician Charles Scudamore (1779–1849) appeared in 1820, the first of its kind for decades. Having visited several well-known spas and wells, including Bath, Buxton and Cheltenham, Scudamore conducted a series of experiments on water samples: he reports using litmus, turmeric and violet papers to judge alkalinity levels; documents testing for various minerals using anything from soap to silver; and explains in detail the difference between hard and soft water. His report remains insightful reading in the history of medicine.

Having trained in Edinburgh as a surgeon and served aboard Royal Navy vessels, Sir James Clark (1788–1870) developed a particular interest in the spread of the tuberculosis pandemic in Europe. A licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians from 1826, and elected to the Royal Society in 1832, he became a trusted physician and friend to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. This early work of 1820 was based on his first-hand knowledge of the treatment of tuberculosis in southern Europe as well as the effects of climate on the disease. Among his tubercular patients in Italy around this time was the poet John Keats (who would succumb in 1821). Also reissued in this series are Clark's Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption (1835), his Memoir of John Conolly (1869), and The Influence of Climate in the Prevention and Cure of Chronic Diseases (1829), a development of aspects of the present work.

Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) is remembered not only as the grandfather of Charles but as a pioneering scientist in his own right. A friend and correspondent of Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley and Matthew Boulton, he practised medicine in Lichfield, but also wrote prolifically on scientific subjects. He organised the translation of Linnaeus from Latin into English prose, coining many plant names in the process, and also wrote a version in verse, The Loves of Plants. The aim of his Zoonomia, published in two volumes (1794–6), is to 'reduce the facts belonging to animal life into classes, orders, genera, and species; and by comparing them with each other, to unravel the theory of diseases'. The first volume describes human physiology, especially importance of motion, both voluntary and involuntary; the second is a detailed description of the symptoms of, and the cures for, diseases, categorised according to his physiological classes.

Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) is remembered not only as the grandfather of Charles but as a pioneering scientist in his own right. A friend and correspondent of Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley and Matthew Boulton, he practised medicine in Lichfield, but also wrote prolifically on scientific subjects. He organised the translation of Linnaeus from Latin into English prose, coining many plant names in the process, and also wrote a version in verse, The Loves of Plants. The aim of his Zoonomia, published in two volumes (1794–6), is to 'reduce the facts belonging to animal life into classes, orders, genera, and species; and by comparing them with each other, to unravel the theory of diseases'. The first volume describes human physiology, especially importance of motion, both voluntary and involuntary; the second is a detailed description of the symptoms of, and the cures for, diseases, categorised according to his physiological classes.

Robert Robertson (1742–1829) was a Scottish doctor and surgeon. After completing his medical apprenticeship, Robertson joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon's mate in 1760. In 1768 he was appointed surgeon to the sloop Diligence, and served as surgeon on various ships in the West Indies, North America and west Africa until 1783. He was appointed surgeon to the Royal Hospital, Greenwich in 1793. This volume, first published in 1792, contains Robertson's detailed observations of malarial and yellow fever, dysentery and other diseases which he encountered while serving as surgeon in the West Indies. Robertson describes in detail the symptoms and progression of these diseases, his treatments and the outcomes, as recorded in his monthly reviews of the ships' sick lists and many detailed case histories of his patients. This volume provides valuable information concerning the treatment of common diseases and conditions on board late eighteenth-century naval ships.

Although he was tried for attempted murder and died in Newgate Prison, the natural philosopher and apothecary John Elliot (1747–87) published a number of significant scientific works in the first part of the 1780s, especially with regard to sensory perception. This 1789 second edition of a 1781 work is essentially an alphabetically arranged catalogue of the principal British mineral waters, their properties and uses, along with those 'most celebrated ones which the English valetudinarian may have occasion to visit on the continent'. In his introduction, Elliot classes the waters according to their respective mineral properties and supplies details of the four classes of substances found united with water, and three methods for analysis. An extract of Joseph Priestley's 1772 pamphlet Directions for Impregnating Water with Fixed Air, with Dr John Nooth's alternative method as an appendix, forms an entertaining preface, informative as to the history of producing carbonated water.

Although first to suggest the possibility of light frequencies beyond the visible spectrum, the natural philosopher John Elliott (1747–87) was better known at his death for his failed suicide in front of the woman he loved. Tried for attempting to shoot her, he was acquitted but died in prison awaiting trial on the lesser charge of assault. First published in 1780, this work was his most important. Contemporary science held that vibrations of the air were directly communicated to the optic and auditory nerves and passed on to the sensorium, while Elliot proposed, through experimentation upon himself, the existence of sensory receptors, each tuned to only a limited part of the spectrum of physical frequencies. This insight led him to postulate the existence of what we now know to be ultraviolet and infrared radiation, thus paving the way for further discoveries in human sensory perception.

In this absorbing work of medical history, the physician and writer John Aikin (1747–1822) brings together biographical information on a selection of Britain's early medics, shedding light on the lives, works and quirks of more than fifty medical writers, surgeons and physicians between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries. Outlining the roles played by major figures in the great medical advances that marked this period, the book was first published in 1780, prior to Aikin's move to Great Yarmouth in 1784 to practise medicine. However, his political beliefs and dissenting views regarding the Church of England contributed to his unpopularity in the area, prompting his move to London and greater literary freedom. Over the years, he produced a broad range of published works, including his historically valuable Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty Miles Round Manchester (1795), which is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.