David Hosack was a New York physician and botanist who lived from 1769 to 1835. In 1797 he treated Philip Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, during a feverish illness by immersing him in a steaming bath with cinchona bark, the source of quinine. Hosack was also the doctor who attended Hamilton at the 1804 duel with Aaron Burr, though he appears in the Broadway musical without a name. Hosack trained in Edinburgh and London and became fascinated by botanical medicine, with the aim of unlocking the healing power of plants. He later set up one of the first botanical gardens in the United States, the Elgin Garden in New York, which held thousands of species used in his research. During the 1795 yellow fever outbreak he rejected bloodletting and mercury in favour of gentler sweating treatments, which his biographers credit with saving patients.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.