The volume bears the bookplate of the Radford Library, Saint Mary's Hospital, Manchester, which also indicates that it was allocated the reference number Q134 viz. their 1877 catalogue. The volume has since been referenced M6 Y56 as part of an alternative system. The inside front cover bears the inscription 'Ex libris R. Dobson, A.M., M.D. apud Edinburgh 1771' as well as comments in Latin by Dobson and the inside back cover containsncomments entitled 'remarkable instances of the force of imagination'. The volume is partially paginated and the writing is on both the recto and verso.
Young's lectures cover ff.1-139, which have the original pagination pp.1-276, after which point the volume is no longer paginated, and natural philosophy lectures of Mr James Russell (d.1773) cover ff.140-204, and finally notes of Mr James Rae's (1716-1791) chirugical lectures cover ff.207-216. The beginning of individual lectures are marked for all three.
Young's lectures commence on 5 November 1770 entitled 'Midwifery by Dr Young IIId Course'. A general index in the front sets out the contents as follows: general observations; progress; authors; female pelvis; dimensions of child's head; difference of pelves of each sex; deformed female pelvis; female parts of generation; external parts; internal organs; superfetation; diseases of the external parts; lithotomy in women & sounding; diseases of the internal parts; size of foetus & difference of from adults; signs of still born; congenital hernia of the foetus; difference of pregnated & unimpregnated uterus; touch, external & internal; time of pregnancy gone; connection between mother & foetus; connection of placenta with the uterus; uses of placenta; menstrual flux; chlorosis [hypochromic anaemia]; immoderate catamenia; symptoms of pregnancy; diseases of pregnancy; sickness & vomiting; headache, toothache, suppression of urine, faeces etc.; oedematous legs, convulsions; palsies [paralyses], pica; floodings; cause of abortion; effects of imagination; reckoning; practical midwifery; symptoms of labours, true & false pains; treatment of a natural labour; extraction of the placenta; principal presentations of the child; use of forceps [surgical instruments]; use of crotchet; preternatural labours; caesarean operation; children presenting double [breech presentation]; accidental circumstances; floodings; twins; treatment after labour; different systems of generation; causes, diagnosis & treatment of laborious births; symptoms of a dead child in utero and in times of labour.
Russell's lectures also commence on 5 November 1770 and cover the following topics: knowledge; history & philosophy; matter & mind; history of arts & sciences; prejudice; language, religion & education; inclusive knowledge; reasoning; division & arrangement; independent properties; space; figure & divisibility; impenetrability; affections of matter; powers; instinct; consciousness; how is knowledge acquired; of the independent properties of bodies; investigation of the laws of balancing powers; phenomena explained from the laws of balancing powers; compound machines; motion; absolute & relative motion; laws of motion. The final lecture is dated 13 December 1770.
Rae's lectures commence on 22 November 1770 although there only appear to be two lectures recorded here. In them he sets out the course outline and looks at the general division of the body and scirrhous breast illustrated by a case from the Edinburgh Infirmary.