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A physician and medical reformer enthused by the scientific and cultural progress of the Enlightenment as it took hold in Britain, Thomas Percival (1740-1804) wrote on many topics, including public health and demography. His influential publication on medical ethics is considered the first modern formulation. In 1807, his son Edward published this four-volume collection of his father's diverse work. Some of the items here had never been published before, including a selection of Percival's private correspondence and a biographical account written by Edward. Volume 1 contains this biography and the full text of Percival's popular self-improvement book, A Father's Instructions, originally intended for his own children and then published in three parts between 1775 and 1800. His Medical Ethics (1803) and Essays Medical and Experimental (revised edition, 1772-3) have been reissued separately in this series.