James Begbie was born in Edinburgh and educated at Edinburgh High School and the University of Edinburgh. He was apprenticed to and later assisted Dr John Abercrombie before entering general practice. After twenty-five years he devoted himself to consulting work and, in his paper on anaemia, gave the first description in Britain of the condition later known as exophthalmic goitre.

John Taylor was born in Edinburgh, the son of an early Church of England medical missionary to India. Educated at Edinburgh High School and the University of Edinburgh, he graduated in 1830 and was the last pupil taught by Dr John Abercrombie. After an appointment at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, he undertook prolonged study in Paris and Heidelberg.

Thomas Graham Weir was born in 1812 at Lynedoch Place, Edinburgh, and received his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh on 1 August 1835 with a dissertation on hydrocephalus. He served as extra physician to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, consulting physician to the New Town Dispensary and consulting physician to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, helping to establish the latter in 1859. Weir devised vaccination and lancet kits for smallpox inoculation and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on 2 February 1847.

Thomas Strethill Wright was born in 1818 at Knutsford, Cheshire, and educated at Monmouth School and Brasenose College, Oxford. He received his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh on 1 August 1845 and served as physician to the Royal Infirmary and the major Edinburgh dispensaries. Wright was president of the Royal Physical Society, became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on 4 May 1847 and died in Edinburgh on 13 October 1876.

John Brown was born in Biggar, Lanarkshire. In the 1820s he was apprenticed to Mr Syme FRCS. He graduated MD in 1833 and practised in Edinburgh. In addition to medicine, he had literary and artistic interests and contributed commentary on art exhibitions at the request of Hugh Miller of The Witness.

Edward Mackay received his medical degree from the University of Giessen on 25 September 1844 and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on 2 November 1847.

Nathaniel Allen Travis was born in 1802 and graduated MD from the University of Edinburgh on 1 August 1825 with a dissertation on apoplexy. He practised in Scarborough until 1841, serving as senior physician to the Malton General Dispensary, before living abroad in Kissingen and Nice. Travis became a Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1825, a Fellow in 1847 and died in 1873.

David Maclagan graduated MD from the University of Edinburgh on 12 September 1805. After service as an army surgeon with British and Portuguese forces during the Napoleonic Wars, he returned to Edinburgh as surgeon to the New Town Dispensary. Maclagan became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on 1 February 1848, served as its President in 1856 and published widely on military and clinical medicine.

Frederick Bell Hunt received his medical degree from the University of St Andrews on 6 May 1845 and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on 1 February 1848. He was also a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

James York received his medical degree from the University of Erlangen on 15 December 1832. He became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1826 and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on 1 May 1848.