Henry Matthews (1799-18?) was a Methodist circuit rider, schoolteacher, and practicing physician from Ohio, who made his way from Ohio, through the Illinois Territory, to Texas. Primarily a circuit-riding preacher and schoolteacher in his early days in Ohio, Matthews practiced medicine more formally in the 1830s and 1840s in San Felipe, Texas, where Matthews and his wife Miranda eventually settled. Primarily a medical diary, this volume includes records of medical visits and attendance by Matthews; death notices that feature the names of the deceased and the diseases from which they died; and an account of pregnancies and births attended by Mathews. Of the illnesses that Matthews recorded, venereal diseases dominate the list with syphilis being a primary affliction. The entries include details about the patients'/deceased's lives and families. The diary does not follow consistent ordering and there are large sections of unused pages in between some entries, which are written sideways with the gutter at the top of the writing.

Parallel text in Spanish and English regarding the plan for better regulation of the administration of justice in Texas describing a series of decrees. The left column is in Spanish and the right column is in English.