The books of secrets reproduced nursing traditions in print, until domestic medicine became an official branch of medicine, in a certain sense absorbing them and purging them of scientific errors. William Buchan (1729-1805) is considered the founder of the discipline with his Domestic Medicine of 1769 of which the Library of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences of the University of Padova has a copy of the Italian translation of 1789 (digital copy). A highly successful publication, it was written in an understandable and informative style, with the aim of empowering families in the diagnosis and daily care, alongside the eventual intervention by a doctor: "we need constant advice, which guides us safely in our daily lives, and instructions to understand the current state of our health" (vol. 1, p. VI).

An enlightened goal of sharing knowledge, to "save ourselves from the destructive effects of ignorance, superstition, cunning and swindle" (vol. 1, p. LI). Tissot, not surprisingly an admirer of Buchan, had already taken this informative approach, but the audience for Domestic Medicine was much larger. "It’s true that others [books] pass through the hands of all: but is also true this extends to greater things. Because, beyond the useful rules to cope with brief and impetuous illnesses, instructions must be also shared to dominate long and slow illnesses; leading and teaching men of all classes on healthier behaviour to protect themselves from the troublesome consequences of their work and their trades" (vol. 1, p. VI). Preventive medicine and occupational medicine, along the lines of what was happening during that period, for example in Ramazzini’s work.

The first part, in fact, focuses on hygiene as a preventive practice, including diet, sleep, exercise, clothing, "evacuations" and "politeness", also understood as moral hygiene, against the "intemperance" driven by passions, "particularly of anger, Dread, Fear, Sadness, Love and Religious Melancholy" (vol. 1, p. 321).

The latter parts include a systematic manual for self-diagnosis and care because "Medicine is not established, except through observation and experience" (vol. 2, p. 394). It always begins with the symptom to explain the disease and the cure. They deal with fevers and various related diseases, smallpox, exanthematous diseases, "coldness", "stomach inflammations", cholera, diabetes, gallstones, bleeding, "various headaches", "tooth pains", "ear pains", jaundice, dropsy, gout, rheumatism, scurvy, asthma, apoplexy, "vapours and nervous diseases" including "morbid laxity" or asthenia from stress and fatigue, "canker", poisoning, "venereal disease", "female diseases", and "children diseases" as well as simpler problems like sunstroke or calluses. The most common surgical procedures are described, such as those for abscesses, fractures or ulcers.

The manual concludes with a general table of topics, in alphabetical order, which acts as a quick reference and referral to the pages where the topic is discussed at greater length.