The difficulty of selection has been great. It was felt that sure ground would be occupied by taking the foundation of the London College of Physicians as a starting-point, and giving a place only to those celebrated men in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries whose title to fame none would deny. Paucity of biographical materials has prevented the introduction of some names; others have been excluded because they were rather notorious for their fees, their _bonmots_, or their fantastic behaviour, than for their solid contributions to medicine. In regard to men of the present century, the task of selection has been still more difficult. For the most part distinguished physiologists, zoologists, &c., do not find a place in these pages, unless they have also won distinction in medical practice. It cannot be expected that the list of living names will satisfy everybody. Others as worthy might have been included. If in refraining from commenting on the career of his present colleagues at Guy’s Hospital, the author may appear to have done injustice to their great merits, he is convinced that he has thereby best steered clear of the dangers of partiality. The utmost care has been taken to avoid giving details which should be private during a man’s life, and to state only those facts about living men which have already for the most part been made generally accessible. The task of reading hundreds of biographical memoirs, medical treatises, scattered pamphlets and papers, has been exceedingly heavy. All those named in the following pages have been consulted; and where details are not given of controversies or incidents which some may be surprised to see passed over, this has been the result of careful deliberation. The author desires specially to acknowledge his great obligations to the _Lancet_ and other medical journals. He trusts he has contributed to the object which they, like himself, have at heart, of elevating the medical profession in the public estimation. DULWICH, _September 1885_. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. PAGE PREFACE v CHAP. I. LINACRE, CAIUS, AND THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH MEDICINE 1 II. WILLIAM HARVEY AND THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD 25 III. THOMAS SYDENHAM, THE BRITISH HIPPOCRATES 52 IV. THE MONROS, CULLEN, THE GREGORYS, JOHN BELL, AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE EDINBURGH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE 71 V. WILLIAM AND JOHN HUNTER AND THE APPLICATIONS OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY TO SURGERY 119 VI. EDWARD JENNER AND VACCINATION 169