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 influential work of 1835 focuses on the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis. Written for a general as well as medical readership, it was lauded by The Lancet and ran to several English editions along with translations into other languages. Also reissued in this series are Clark's Medical Notes on Climate, Diseases, Hospitals, and Medical Schools in France, Italy, and Switzerland (1820), The Influence of Climate in the Prevention and Cure of Chronic Diseases (1829) and his Memoir of John Conolly (1869).