RICHARD, the son of Matthew Mead, a dissenting clergyman, was born at Stepney, on the 11th of August 1673. After having received the early part of his education under the care of his father, he went to a private school, in 1688, and, in the following year, was sent to Utrecht, where he studied three years under the celebrated Grævius. In 1692, at which time he was well skilled in the Greek and Latin languages, and noted for his "ready talents in verse," he removed to Leyden, where he continued till 1695, applying himself to the study of physic, in which he derived great advantage by constantly attending the lectures of Herman and Pitcairn. On leaving Leyden he went to Florence, and there discovered the Tabula Isiaca. At Padua he took his degree of doctor of philosophy and physic; and, after having visited Rome and Naples, returned to Stepney, in 1696, where he practised for some years with great success.

In 1702, he published his Mechanical Account of Poisons, a work which was the result of practical experiments, particularly with the viper; the venom of which he tasted, in order to ascertain the utility of the method of the Psylli, who were accustomed to suck the wounds made by the bite of serpents. In 1703, he was chosen physician to St. Thomas's Hospital, on which occasion he removed to Crutched Friars, where he resided until 1711, when he took a house in Austin Friars, and, about the same time was appointed, by the Surgeons' Company, their anatomical lecturer. In 1704, he became a member of the Royal Society; of which, in 1706, he was made one of the council, and, in 1717, on the nomination of Sir Isaac Newton, a vicepresident. He had, also, in the interim, been admitted a fellow of the College of Physicians, and been presented with a diploma of M. D. by the University of Oxford.

Having attained considerable eminence as a physician, he was called in to a consultation during the last illness of Queen Anne; who, although the other medical men present appear to have taken a favourable view of her case, he observed, "could not hold out long;" a prediction that was verified by her death taking place two days afterwards. Shortly after the accession of George the First, he removed to the house of his lately deceased friend, Dr. Radcliffe, and at the same time resigned his office in St. Thomas's Hospital, on which occasion he received the unanimous thanks of the committee for his services, and was presented with a governor's staff.

In 1719, a quarantine was established by his advice, which had been solicited by government, in consequence of the plague having appeared at Marseilles; and, about the same period, he published A short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Methods to be used to Prevent it. In less than a year this work went through seven editions, the first and the last of which were translated into Latin by Mr. Mattaire and Professor Ward. It appears, however, to have injured his practice, although it increased his reputation; being suspected, says one of his biographers," to be intended to prepare the way for barracks, &c. at a time of day when the nation was even more jealous of a standing army than now."

In 1721, on the communication by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, of the successful results of inoculation which she had observed at Constantinople, Dr. Mead was ordered by the Prince of Wales to inoculate six condemned criminals, whose lives had been spared for the purpose. The experiment succeeding, he, in the following year, inoculated the two daughters of the prince, who, on coming to the throne, appointed him his physician in ordinary.

In 1704, having published his Oratio Harveiana, it involved him in a serious dispute with Dr. Middleton, who wrote several treatises against it, which, however, were successfully answered on behalf of Mead, by the learned Ward. In 1734, feeling desirous of retirement, he declined the presidentship of the College of Physicians, and thenceforth devoted most of his leisure time to literary pursuits connected with the profession. In 1746, he published a work in Latin, on the influence of the sun and moon upon human bodies; and in 1747, a Latin treatise on the small-pox and measles, in answer to a production on the same subject, by Dr. Woodward, with whom he entered into a violent controversy, in which he was materially assisted by Dr. Freind. In 1749, he published Medicina Sacra ; and, in 1750, his last work, entitled Monita et Præcepta Medica, of which his principal biographer, Dr. Maty, thus speaks: "This is a legacy that our author hath bequeathed to his brethren; valuable, not only for the good it may do, but, likewise, as it shows the excellent mind of the testator. To be able to account in such a manner to posterity for the use of his time,-to consecrate the last moments of his life to the advancement of science, how worthy is that man to have lived who dies thus employed!"

From the time of the publication of this work, Dr. Mead began gradually to decline in health, and his death took place on the 16th of February, 1754. He was buried in the Temple Church, and a handsome monument was erected to his memory, by his only surviving son, in Westminster Abbey. He had been twice married: first, in 1699, to a Miss Marsh, by whom he had ten children, seven of whom died in his lifetime; and, in 1724, to a daughter of Sir Rowland Aston, a Bedfordshire baronet, by whom he had no issue. Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author of An Analysis of Dr. Bonomi's Researches relative to the Itch; of some valuable tracts; and of various papers in the Philosophical Transactions.

Few men remained so long at the head of their profession, or practised with so much success, as Mead: for nearly fifty years his business produced him, on an average, nearly £4,000 a

year. His professional reputation was so great, that almost all the counties of England, and the colonies belonging to it, applied to him for the choice of their physicians; and the most eminent medical men in the principal courts of Europe frequently wrote to consult him. He often exchanged presents with the King of France; and the King of Naples once sent to request of him a complete collection of his works; giving him, in return, a valuable publication by Signor Bajardi, on the Antiquities of Herculaneum.

He appears to have been an ardent admirer of Dr. Radcliffe, who, having one day found him reading Hippocrates in the original Greek, expressed his astonishment, and said—" Why, I never read Hippocrates at all." "You have no occasion to do so," replied Mead, "for you are Hippocrates himself." This flattering reply is stated to have procured him the friendship of Radcliffe; to whose patronage, the foundation of his immense practice has been generally attributed. According, however, to one author, he "had his rise in life from being called in to see the Duchess of at midnight. She unfortunately drank to excess. The doctor also was very often much in liquor, and was so that night. In the act of feeling her pulse, slipping his foot, he cried, "Drunk! by G-d!" meaning himself. She, imagining he had found out her complaint, which she wished to conceal, told the doctor if he kept her secret she would recommend him. She did so, and made his fortune." The author of the Gold Headed Cane states that, when not engaged at home, he generally spent his evenings at Batson's coffee-house; and that, in the forenoons, apothecaries used to come to him at Toms's, near Covent Garden, with written or verbal reports of cases, on which he prescribed, without seeing the patients, for halfguinea fees.

One of the principal improvements which he brought into practice, was a method of moderating the sudden efflux of water in tapping, on account of which persons had frequently died under the operator's hands. It was said of him, that, "of all physicians who had ever flourished, he gained the most, spent the most, and enjoyed the highest fame during his life-time, not only in his own,

but in foreign countries." He subscribed to the metropolitan hospitals then established; successfully exerted himself for the foundation of another by Mr. Guy; and, according to Dr. Maty, the Foundling could never have been attempted without his assistance. Being as much a lover of the arts and sciences as a philanthropist, there was scarcely any thing tending to their promotion "to which," says George Edwards (a celebrated natural historian, who experienced the benefit of his patronage),

he did not contribute in the most extensive manner." He continually kept in his pay a number of scholars and artists. On hearing that Mr. Carte was employed, in France, on an English translation of the History of Thuanus, he not only paid that gentleman liberally for his labours, but employed Mr. Buckley to finish the work on a more extended plan, and when completed, had it published at his own expense. After ten years of zealous solicitation, he persuaded the lords of the admiralty to order that every vessel in the navy should be provided with one of Mr. Sutton's machines for drawing out foul and corrupted air from ships. His house, in Great Ormond Street, where he resided during the latter part of his life, was styled the "Temple of Nature and Repository of Time," and no foreigner of taste or celebrity came to London without visiting him. Some idea of the value and extent of his library may be conceived from the fact, that the sale of his books alone lasted twenty-eight days, and produced £5,500; the rest of his collection, consisting of antiques, medals, coins, prints, and drawings, were disposed of in about a fortnight, and fetched nearly double that amount.

His character in private life appears to have been very amiable. Pope said of him, "I highly esteem and love that worthy man. His unaffected humanity and benevolence have stifled much of that envy which his eminence in his profession would otherwise have drawn out." His hospitality was unbounded: not satisfied with entertaining his own friends and acquaintances, he kept also, says the author of the Gold Headed

Cane, a very handsome second table, to which persons of inferior quality were invited.

Notwithstanding the violence he displayed in the controversy with Woodward, whom he is even said, in the Medical Anecdotes, (the accuracy of which is, however, doubtful on this point,) to have challenged, and compeiled to beg pardon, Dr. Mead was, in his general conduct, mild and forbearing. On one occasion, a servant, whom he had asked to look for his spectacles, told him petulantly, but without exciting any observation in reply, that "he was always losing his things!" His anger was, however, occasionally aroused. He once said to a divine, who, instead of attending to his prescriptions had been following the directions laid down for the cure of the malady with which he was afflicted, in a work by Dr. Cheyne: "Sir, I have never yet, in the whole course of my practice, taken or demanded the least fee from a clergyman; but, since you have pleased, contrary to what I have met with in any other gentleman of your profession, to prescribe to me, rather than follow my prescriptions, when you had committed the care of your recovery to my skill and trust, you must not take it amiss, nor will, I hope, think it unfair, if I demand ten guineas of you." The clergyman paid the money; six guineas of which, Mead, however, subsequently returned.

To Dr. Freind he appears to have been much attached. When that learned physician was confined in the Tower, he went there and told him that he would do all in his power to obtain his liberation; adding, with a smile, “ I presume, however much your cultivated mind is enabled to amuse itself by reading and writing, you will have

no

sort of objection to resign your newly acquired office of Medicus Regius ad Turrim." It is said, that he refused to prescribe for Sir Robert Walpole, until that minister consented to the discharge of Dr. Freind, to whom, on the day of his liberation, he handed the sum of five thousand guineas, which he had received from Freind's patients during his imprisonment.

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JOHN FREIND, the son of a clergyman, was born at Croton, in Northamptonshire, some time in the year 1675. After having passed some time at Westminster School, under Dr. Busby, he was elected, in 1690, to Christchurch College, Oxford; where, according to Nichols, he directed the studies of Mr. Boyle, and wrote the Examination of Dr. Bentley's Dissertation on Esop, which exposed him to some severe remarks from that celebrated critic. He also, in conjunction with Foulkes, edited the Greek Oration of Eschines against Ctesiphon, with the reply of Demosthenes; and revised for the press, the Delphin edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

In 1701, he took, successively, the degrees of M. A. and B. M.; and, in 1703, published a work, entitled, Emmenologia, which passed through several editions, and was translated into the principal continental languages. In 1704, he became chemical professor at Oxford; and, in the following year, went to Spain, as physician to the English forces under the command of the Earl of Peterborough. He remained abroad for about two years, during which he visited Italy; and, on his return, published a pamphlet in defence of Lord Peterborough's conduct. In 1707, he was created M.D. by diploma; and, in 1709, printed nine chemical lectures; which, being severly censured by the author of the Acta Eruditorum, who treated as fiction the Newtonian Philosophy, Freind published a Latin answer, defending its principles, in the Philosophical Transactions.

In 1711, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society; in the following year, he accompanied the British troops to Flanders; and, in 1714, took up his abode in London, where he soon obtained the reputation of being one of the first physicians of his day. In 1716, he became a fellow of the College of Physicians; and, shortly afterwards, published a work, entitled, Hypocratis de Morbis Popularibus, liber primus et

tertius: his accomodavit Novem de Febribus Commentariis John Freind, M. D. In this work he displayed great erudition, and a profound acquaintance with the works of Hippocrates, whose practice he accurately detailed, and of whose principles he avowed himself a zealous advocate. Having, in the Commentaries, made some remarks relative to the efficacy of purgative medicines in the secondary fever of confluent small-pox, he was attacked by Dr. Woodward, in a treatise, entitled, The State of Physic and Diseases; to which he published a ludicrous reply, under the name of one Byfield, a noted quack. In 1717, he read the Gulstonian lecture; and, in 1719, printed a letter, addressed to Dr. Mead, entitled, De Purgantibus in Secunda Variolarum Confluentium Febre adhibendis, which appears to have greatly increased his reputation.

After a

In 1720, he delivered the Harveian oration; and, in 1722, became member of parliament for Launceston. In the house of commons, he displayed considerable hostility to Walpole; and on the impeachment of Atterbury, advocated the cause of that prelate with so much warmth, that during the suspenpension of the habeas corpus act, he was charged with treasonable designs, and committed to the Tower. confinement of three months, his friend, Dr. Mead, procured his enlargement, on bail; whose recognizances were, shortly afterwards, discharged. While in the Tower, he produced an epistle to Dr. Mead, entitled, De quibusdam Variolarum generibus; and formed the plan of his celebrated History of Physic, from the time of Galen to the beginning of the Sixteenth Century, chiefly with regard to Practice; the first part of which was published in 1725, and the second in 1726. This work was suggested by, and intended as a supplement to, Daniel Le Clerc's Histoire de la Medecine. It met with much approbation; but did not wholly escape censure, a pamphlet being published, in which the author was charged with