This eighth part completes coverage of Sloane’s magnificent collections relating to the history of medicine, surgery and anatomy. Material spans from the 14th to the 17th centuries and includes:

• Medical lectures delivered to the Royal College of Physicians in the 18th century by Francis Glisson and contemporary copies of lectures delivered in Leiden by Herman Boerhaave (generally regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital)

• Records of the Royal College of Physicians featuring Minutes of its Committees, 1681-1697 and papers of other medical institutions

• Works of classic authors such as the medical commonplace book of Hippocrates, a 14th century copy of Ardene’s Liber Medicnarum and texts by Geber and Galen.

• Papers on the Plague with 17th century texts by John de Bordeaux

• 17th century thesis on the circulation of the blood by Luke Eales and papers on inoculation against smallpox

• Detailed medical casebooks of James Petivar and Sir Hans Sloane