This collection consists of Perkins' memoirs, philosophical and religious essays and letters, extensive notes and discussion of medical cases and treatments, as well as his writings upon natural phenomenon. In addition to autobiographical information, the octavo volume contains numerous essays, treatises, and/or commentaries upon various topics. Some of the titles are: "of Moral and Religious Obligation"; "Natural Religion"; "Of Humane Understanding, Knowlege"; "Of the Diseases and Casualtys incident to Mankind"; "An Essay Upon Mind"; "A few Thoughts concerning Education"; and "Of a Divine Moral Government." Perkins also included, "A Tho't on Liberty (ie) civil Liberty"; "Of the Winds and Currents of the Sea"; and "A Tho't on the Witchcraft of 1692." He also wrote "...the manners of speaking and pronouncing," and composed a poem for his deceased wife, Clarissa ( -1749). The folio volume contains 12 individual pamphlets or notebooks in which Perkins recorded miscellaneous information. They include accounts of medical cases and notes taken from medical books, political observations taken from contemporary newspapers and magazines, religious and philosophical comments, with a few essays similar to those in the octavo volume, and an account of his "...constitution, health, and sickness." Two copies with variations of "An Essay Upon Mind," which is also in the octavo volume, are included in the folder of Perkins' papers. In addition, there are writings in an epistolary style concerning Perkins' "Notion of Supernaturalia in Providence," other philosophical letters, notes on "Hurd's Sermons on the Prophecy," "A Conjecture concerning the origin of Pit-coal...," "Letsom's medical memoirs..." and "Extracts from Wiseman's Surgery." Perkins printed three pamphlets: "Thoughts on Agency," (1765); "Theory of Agency, or, an essay on the nature, source and extent of moral freedom," (1771); and "The true nature and cause of the tails of comets," (1772).
