Anton Von Stoerck was born in Saulgau, Upper Swabia on 21 February 1731. His parents died when he was young and he grew up in a poorhouse. After studying under Anton de Haen and Gerard Van Swieten, he received his MD from the University of Vienna in 1757. He then headed several hospitals in Vienna before being promoted to royal court physician in 1760. He became a professor of medicine at Vienna the same year, the dean of the medicine faculty in 1765, and the rector from 1768. In 1772, after the death of Van Swieten, he was appointed the personal physician of Empress Maria Theresa. He is known today for being the father of modern pharmacology, as his studies focused on the use of poisonous plants as medicine and he proposed the system for drug testing. He died in 1803.

Johann Georg Zimmerman was born in Brugg, Switzerland on 8 December 1728. He obtained his MD from the University of Göttingen in 1751. He was interested in the relationship between philosophy and medicine, focusing on the relationship between the psyche and the body. He became a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin and the Economical Society at Berne. He was the private physician to both George III of Great Britain and Frederick the Great. He died in Hanover in 1795.

Also known as Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann.

Joseph Marie Francois de Lassone was born 3 July 1717 in Carpentras, France to Antoine Joachim de Lassone and Marguerite de Bagnole. He studied anatomy in Paris, and in 1742 was made an associate anatomist at the academy of sciences. He is best known for the role he played in the establishment of the Commission for Epidemics in 1776, alongside Vicq d’Azyr, becoming its inspector general. By 1778 it was known as the ‘Societe Royale de Medecine’ and its role included prevention and treatment of epidemics. He died in 1778.

Joseph Banks was born in 1743 in London to William Banks and Sarah Bate. He studied botany at Oxford University, although he did not complete his degree. A naturalist, his first major position was on the 1766 expedition to Labrador and Newfoundland. He then took part in the Endeavour voyage of 1768-1771 to Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia. After his return, he took up a position at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, where he was responsible for greatly increasing its collection, and served as president of the Royal Society from 1778. He was a proponent of the colonisation of Australia and frequently made requests for his collections to the British there. This included a request for human remains, which led to Governor Philip Gidley King sending him the head of Aboriginal leader Pemulwuy. Pemulwuy’s skull was later lost and remains missing as of 2026. Banks died in 1820.

John Rogerson was born near Lochmaben on 22 October 1741 to Samuel Rogerson and Janet Johnston. He obtained his MD from the University of Edinburgh in 1765. He then moved to St. Petersburg, where he was appointed court physician in 1769. In 1776, he was elected to the Imperial Academy of Sciences and became physician to the Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great, eventually becoming an advisor and diplomat at the Russian court. That year, he was elected to the Royal Society in London for his development of links between Russia and Britain. He became a member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 1782 and was awarded the Freedom of the City in Dumfries in 1786. At the age of 78, he returned to Scotland for good, and died 21 December 1823 in Dumcrieff.

George Brudenell, Duke of Montagu was born 17 July 1712 to George Brudenell, 3rd Earl Cardigan, and Lady Elizabeth Bruce. After obtaining his MA from Queen's College, Oxford in 1730 he began his lifelong career in court. He was at various points president of the Royal Society of Arts and of St Luke's Hospital, and vice-president of St. George's Hospital. He died 23 May 1790.

Pieter Camper was born 11 May 1722 in Leiden. His father was a clergyman, working in the Dutch East Indies for a time, and his grandfather was a physician. Camper graduated from the University of Leiden as a doctor of both medicine and philosophy in 1746, before studying further in England and Geneva. He was appointed to the chairs of philosophy, medicine at surgery at Franeker University in Friesland. In 1763, he was appointed professor at the University of Groningen in surgery, botany, anatomy and medicine. He is best known for his work in comparative anatomy. His research involved the use of human remains collected without consent from the Netherlands and its colonies. He died 7 April 1789.

Also known as Petrus Camper.

Felix Vicq-D’Azyr was born in Valognes, Normandy in 1748. In 1765, he studied in Paris under comparative anatomist Louis Daubenton and surgeon Antoine Petit. He graduated from the Paris Medical School in 1772, giving lectures on human and animal anatomy. After moving back to Normandy due to sickness, he studied fish, birds and quadrupeds, earning him admission to the Academie des Sciences in 1774. He managed a cattle epidemic in the southern provinces, which led to his widespread celebrity and the foundation of the ‘Societe Royale de Medecine’ in 1776, of which he was made permanent secretary. In 1788, he was elected into the ‘Academic Francaise’, the highest scientific honour in the country, and was made the First Physician of Queen Marie Antoinette in 1789. He spent his last years as a military physician. He died 20 June 1794.

John Andreas Murray was a physician and botanist born in 1740 in Stockholm, Sweden to Andreas Murray. He studied at Uppsala University under Carl Linnaeus from 1756-1760, before studying at Göttingen, obtaining his MD in 1763. His studies focused on the properties of medicinal plants, their preparations, and uses. He was made director of Göttingen Botanic Gardens in 1769, publishing on plants there. The genus Murraya is believed to be named after him. He was elected a member of the American philosophical society in 1791 and died in Göttingen in May that same year.

August Gottlieb Richter was born 13 April 1742 in Zörbig, Saxony. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Göttingen in 1764. After travelling across Europe, he returned to Göttingen to teach, becoming a full professor in 1771. He is best known for describing a type of hernia, which is now known as Richter’s Hernia, in 1785. He wrote a number of medical books, dedicating his 1794 work ‘Medical and Surgical Observations’ to the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He died in Göttingen on 23 July 1812.