Contains notes taken by Harvard student Lyman Spalding during eleven chemistry lectures delivered by Harvard Professor Aaron Dexter (1750-1829) in the fall of 1795 and recipes prepared and used by Spalding in his medical practice in 1797. The recipes include elixir vitriol, containing liquor, Jamaica pepper, cinnamon, and ginger, and an electuary for a cough, containing oxymel squills (sea onion in honey), licorice, antimonium tartaricum potash (a compound of the chemical element antimony and a potassium-containing salt), and opium. The volume also contains writings about chemistry by Spalding, some of which appear transcribed from published sources, in undated entries, and a diary entry from 1799 regarding an experiment with water.

Lyman Spalding (1775-1821), M.B., 1797, Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, practiced medicine in New Hampshire and New York. He was noted for his work in smallpox vaccination, treatment of yellow fever, and study of anatomy. Spalding taught chemistry at Dartmouth Medical School and Fairfield Medical School for several years. He founded the Pharmacopoeia of the United States of America.