Book excerpt: There has been a growing recognition of the importance of mathematical and statistical methods in the history of medicine, particularly in those areas where statistical methods are a sine qua non such as epidemiology and randomised clinical trials. Despite this expanding scholarly interest, the development of the mathematical and statistical technologies in the biological sciences has not been examined systematically. This collection of essays aims to provide a broader overview of this field, and to explore the use of these with the use of these quantitative technologies in medical and clinical cultures from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.