Background. The Edinburgh experience ; Medicine at sea -- From surgeon's mate to physician to the fleet. HMS Berwick ; Surgeon of a slaver ; Northumbrian interlude ; Recalled to the colours ; The Royal Hospital, Haslar ; Physician to the Channel fleet ; The conquest of scurvy ; Shore-based in Plymouth ; Honours and half-pay -- The Newcastle years. Married life and civilian practice ; An essay on drunkenness ; A war of pamphlets ; A view of the nervous temperament ; Physician as poet and playwright ; Thomas Trotter and the great theatre of life
