When Gilbert Livingston bought this book, he was already sixty years old. But it was his youngest brother, Robert Henry, who was to die two years later at the age of forty-four. Gilbert, himself, died two years after that.

Medicine and general science were topics of interest to the Livingstons, with Henry's son Charles becoming a doctor, and Henry sending him advice on herbs and cures. Henry, himself, published a piece on the use of tobacco to revive a drowning victim.