This is an album of early X-rays taken by John Cook, Principal of the Central College of Bangalore, at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. There is a pen inscription on the pastedown: "X ray Photographs taken by J. Cook. Bangalore". Most X-rays are of human limbs (hands, arms, legs, feet), and some have a caption with the patient's name. There are also a few X-rays of a frog.

The volume contained some enclosures, now placed in a separate folder. They consist of a newspaper clipping dated 28 June 1973 in which Dr John B. King from the Royal Scottish Museum [now National Museum of Scotland] is launching an appeal to gather early X-ray-related material for an exhibition, and correspondence dated September-November 1973 between Dr John King and Dr R. G. W. Anderson, and the then owner of the album, Miss Tait (John Cook's daughter Annie Smith Cook married James Guthrie Tait (1861-1945) in 1904).