The vast majority of the material relates to Dent's research and clinical interests and falls into four main categories: correspondence files; files created around the publication of papers; lecture notes and symposium papers; and case/research notes. There are also smaller quantities dealing with other aspects of his career, such as the administration of UCH Metabolic Ward. The papers thus reflect most of Dent's scientific and clinical interests. This research is mainly represented by the abstracted documentation which he kept with drafts of his published papers (see section E.1) and also by correspondence about cases and clinical case notes (see section C.5). To a lesser degree they also illustrate the work at the laboratory bench which underpinned much of this research. For example, a file of unidentified paper chromatograms has been preserved (C.2/10) to illustrate one of Dent's methods of working, as described by his colleague, Heathcote, and quoted in the Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1978: 'Paper chromatograms were not to be thrown away. They were filed and, since the colours faded, the outline of each spot was drawn in and the intensity of the colour was indicated by a number.' The way in which Dent compiled a large series of files around drafts of scientific papers also illustrates the importance of the published paper to him as a stage in the research process. An incomplete collection of reprints of Dent's published papers may be found in section E.2 of the collection.

Papers of Dame Harriette Chick: this collection represents a relatively limited record of Chick's long and active career. It is particularly strong on the period around her important work in Vienna, 1919-1921, and includes some material relating to other research on nutritional questions.

Sargant was an outspoken supporter and practitioner of what he termed the 'practical rather than philosophical approaches' to the treatment of mental illness, pioneering and publicising various physical treatments and vociferously opposing the use of psychoanalytic techniques. The majority of the collection consists of his writings, both published and unpublished, supplemented by a small quantity of correspondence and other material. In addition, the collection contains clinical records for about 500 cases from Sutton Emergency Hospital in the 1940s. As well as covering clinical subjects (in Sections D, E, and F) and Sargant's views on the practice of psychiatry in general (Section B), the collection also contains material relating to his interest in the related issues of religious conversion and brainwashing (Section G).

Correspondence, mainly to Martin Folkes on a large variety of subjects, including administrative matters for the Royal Society.

See sub-fonds level descriptions for individual scope and contents.

This category consists of individual documents relating to the administration of the Royal Navy. It is arranged by department, and consists of fifteen documents relating to the Board of Admiralty, seventeenth to twentieth centuries; an example is an instruction of 1652 from the Admiralty to the Navy Board on the building of thirty frigates. However, an early document is also included in this category; this is a warrant from Henry VIII to the Keeper of the Wardrobe to provide cloth for the hallowing (or blessing) of the HENRY GRACE A DIEU, 1514. There are ten documents relating to the Navy Board, sixteenth to nineteenth centuries; these are mainly early documents relating to finance when the Treasurer of the Navy was a member of the Board. The earliest is a warrant of 1558 for the payment of two thousand pounds.

Scrapbook kept by George Marsh, with notes on a wide variety of subjects and many newspaper cuttings inserted, 18th century.

Although Barlow is best known for his original researches on infantile scurvy, there is very little material relating to that subject in the collection. There are manuscript drafts of his address to the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh and his Bradshaw Lecture on infantile scurvy (BAR/E1-2), but the bulk of the clinical and scientific component of the papers relates to other matters, particularly Raynaud's disease and erythromelalgia, diseases to which Barlow turned his attention later in his career.

Among Barlow's clinical papers is a notebook recording minutes of a 'Clinical Club', 1875-77 (BAR/D.2), whose members included, apart from Barlow himself, Sidney Coupland, Rickman Godlee, William Smith Greenfield, Robert Parker, and William Allen Sturge.

Most of Barlow's private patients' records have not survived, though there is an index to his private patients' books, covering the years 1876-1918 (BAR/F.1).

Scientific and clinical matters are also discussed in Barlow's correspondence, but again this is relatively thin for the period when he was active in research. Barlow's non-family correspondence has clearly been heavily weeded: there are few letters from patients, with the exception of some prominent individuals, such as Mary Curzon, wife of Lord Curzon, Randall Davidson, archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Salisbury and Lord Selborne, and in general it seems that while letters from important or well-known figures have survived those from individuals deemed less important have been discarded. Significant numbers of letters remain however from several of Barlow's regular correspondents, such as the poet, Robert Bridges, Lord Bryce, and William Page Roberts, dean of Salisbury, as well as medical figures like Sir William Jenner and Sir James Reid.

Barlow's personal papers and family correspondence have survived in bulk and form a rich source of material for both his private and family life, and his public career. There are travel journals and sketchbooks from his earlier years, mainly documenting visits to the Continent, 1869-83; correspondence with his parents, brother, wife and children, 1852-1940, including letters written by Barlow from Balmoral, where he served as royal physician intermittently between 1897 and 1899, an eye-witness account of the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 (BAR/B.2/4), and letters and telegrams from court in 1902 during the crisis of Edward VII's appendectomy; and commonplace and scrapbooks compiled in retirement, 1920-37. Also from this period are various temperance notes and addresses.

The archive also comprises letters and papers of Barlow's parents, 1842-87; of Barlow's wife, Ada, including letters from her brother and sisters in India, 1858-80, and to her daughter Helen studying in Darmstadt, Germany, 1905-6; of Barlow's sons, Alan, Thomas and Basil, including letters from the last-named while serving on the Western Front, 1916-17; and notably of his daughter Helen, including correspondence with Archbishop and Mrs (later Lady) Davidson, 1910-35, and letters from Sir John Rose Bradford and his wife while serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps in France, 1914-19. Helen Barlow's papers also include records of three charities with which she was associated: the University College Hospital Ladies Association, 1900-50, the Southwark Boys Aid Association, 1914-36, and the Quinn Square [Southwark] Social Centre Society, c. 1935-1951. Finally there is a handful of letters to Andrew Barlow, Sir Thomas's grandson, mainly relating to articles he wrote about his grandfather, 1955-81.

Correspondence and literature of various charitable bodies with which Sir Richard Cave was associated, 1954-1973, including the British Obesity Association, 1967-1969; Disabled Christians' Fellowship, 1959; International Holiday Camp and Rally for the Disabled, 1958; Queen Elizabeth's Foundation for the Disabled , c 1970s; Scroth Centre for the Treatment of Rheumatic Disease by Natural Therapeutics, c 1950s-1970s; Society for the Relief of Distress and other bodies.

Cheadle's papers, 1877-1934, include his notes on the use of anti-scorbutic treatment for scurvy in young children, includes notes of six cases, with temperature charts, 1877-88. Also includes explanatory notes from J.F. Poynton, 1910; Original paintings and photograph of infantile scurvy by Cheadle, from the cases of Sir Thomas Barlow, to accompany Cheadle's original records of the cases, [1877-79], with letter presenting paintings to the College from Poynton, 1934.

Volume of list of subscribers to the Jackson Harmsworth Expedition and copy of a letter addressed to R Koettlitz, doctor of the expedition, from Dr A E Wright on the threatment of scurvy, 4 Jul 1894.

The collection covers both Pettigrew's medical and antiquarian activities, which are intermingled in the material's arrangement. The medical items include correspondence with many medical figures, medical jurisprudence (an Anniversary Oration delivered to the Medical Society of London), corpulence, hydrophobia, medical observations by army officers in India, and an autobiographical memoir of the philanthropist and prison-reformer James Neild (1744-1814), transcribed by Pettigrew and incorporated into his life of John Coakley Lettsom M.D. The antiquarian items include material on Kett's Rebellion, Hindu deities, the library of the Duke of Sussex and correspondence with the Italian antiquary Giovanni Spano (1803-1878) and Gaetano Cara, as part of Pettigrew's role as Vice-President of the British Archaeological Society. Types of material held include notebooks, loose papers, correspondence and diplomas.

This collection contains a single manuscript volume, the 'Naval Surgeons Casebook'. The volume begins with details of cases, symptoms and cures of Nathaniel Bedford's patients at St George's hospital during 1781. The rest of the volume contains descriptions of cases, sickness, and treatments during his travels whilst a ship's surgeon in the West Indies during 1781-1783.

Papers of Peter Daniel, 1971-1990, including correspondence concerning the Jenner Trust and Appeal, Physiological Society, William Gibson, and the Sir Hugh Cairns memorial, plus some notes on medical cases and Daniel's research grant applications.

The majority of papers in this collection concern Trowell's work on fibre, carried out in close cooperation with Denis Burkitt, exploring its role in the prevention of obesity, diabetes and coronary heart disease. There are no primary sources from the period Trowell spent as Senior Physician at the Mulago Hospital, Uganda, 1930-1958, where he was one of the key researchers into the protein-calorie malnutrition disease kwashiorkor. However, publications can be found at C.1 and the work is discussed in transcripts of taped reminiscences (A.2), and in Trowell's biography (A.5).

Section D of this list consists of papers generated by Trowell's engagement in the debate on the interface of religion and medicine.

Papers of Donald Hunter, 1910-1977. There are two large, parallel series of case files and reference files (section C) relating to a wide range of conditions, most but not all connected with occupational hazards and many being dermatological or osteopathic, as well as factory visit notes, correspondence, both personal and professional, publications, writings, and audio-visual material.

Personal papers of Charles Bisset, including published medical essays by Bisset, including work on scurvy, as well as extensive manuscript case notes and observations, 1755-[1781] and Bisset's annotated copy of 'First lines of the practice of physic, new edn.' by William Cullen in 4 volumes (Edinburgh, 1786), annotated extensively by Bisset.

Personal papers of François Verdeil, including correspondence and Clinical Case books, 1787-1820. In addition to the case books, the correspondence mainly relate to his treatment of patients, with some letters relating to the treatment of his wife. There are also some administrative papers concerning the establishment of a Collège de Médecine at Lausanne.

Papers relating to Marshall Hall, comprising notes on his lectures on dropsy and neurology, 1835, as well as notes on lectures by Frederick Tyrell and John Morgan, 1833, taken by an unidentified student.

Drewitt's pathological drawings, 1876-1881, both water-colour drawings and pencil sketches, of cases admitted to St George's Hospital, 1876-1878 and undated, and of cases of pharyngoeal diphtheria, made at Great Ormond Street Hospital, 1880, and scurvy, rickets and variola, 1881. Many are labelled and annotated.

Recipes and accounts notebook, c 1690-1763, comprising a manuscript volume of recipes or receipts, for conditions including colic, dissentery, scalding, consumption, and scurvy; and wages and farm accounts, 1703-1763.