Arthur Conan Doyle's MD thesis on syphilis is one of the notable documents being made available through a Research Resources in Medical History grant to the University of Edinburgh.

From 1726, Edinburgh offered a three-year course in medicine leading to an MD for which students were required to produce a dissertation (which, until 1833, had to be written in Latin).

The new grant will enable Edinburgh University Library to create a full catalogue of its MD thesis collection, opening up online access to this fascinating archive for the first time. The collection is highly historically significant, as Edinburgh was Europe's leading centre for medical education in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Among many medical luminaries, the collection includes the theses of James (Miranda) Barry, the female military doctor who disguised herself as a man so she could pursue a career in medicine, and John Morgan and Benjamin Rush, who pioneered the USA's medical education.