PREFACE FTER having enjoyed the Favour of the Publick for fuch a Number of Years, and, with Pleasure, perceiving their Kindness increafed upon every Publication, the Bufinefs of an annual Addrefs of this Sort, can' be little cite but a Return of grateful Thanks, for the Efteem with which we are honoured; and to crave the future Affiftance of our learned and ingenious Correfpondents, whofe Productions have fo evidently contributed to gåin us the Approbation of our Readers. We hope it is obferved, that Succefs has not abated our Attention and Endeavour to excel; but rather animated us to new and warmer Proofs of our Regard, to the good Opinion of our Purchafers, to their Inftruction and Entertainment. To this End we have fpared neither for Affiduity nor Expence in opening the Stores of Sci- ence before them, in order to render the LONDON MAGAZINE at once the most useful and most amufing COLLECTION ever yet published, which having now entered the twenty-fifth Year of its Existence, bids fair to convey down to the Days of our Posterity, a faithful Register of all the ingenious Labours and use- THE. LONDON MAGAZINE. JANUARY, 1755. An Extract from the Memoirs of the Life and Writings of that Learned Phyfician, the late Dr. R. MEAD, prefixed to a Work of his, just published in English, intitled, Medica Sacra; or, a Commentary on the most remarkable Difeafes mentioned in the HOLY SCRIPTURES. A UR learned and celebrated phyfician was defcended from a diftinguished family in Buckinghamshire, and born at Stepney, August 2, 1673. His father, Mr. B Matthew Mead, was held in great esteem as a divine among the prefbyterians, and was poffeffed, during their ufurped power, of the living of Stepney; from whence he was ejected the fecond year after the restoration of king Charles II. Nevertheless, tho' he had fifteen children, of whom our Richard was the feventh, he found means with a moderate fortune, to give them a compleat education. To this purpose he kept a tutor in his house to inftru&t them, and they were taught Latin rather by practice than by rules. In 1683, Mr. Mead, (the father) was accufed of being concerned in fome de figns against the court, and knowing that at fuch a time he could not rely upon his fon Richard at a school under an able. D From thence he travelled into Italy, and as he paffed through Padua, he, on August 27, 1695, took the degree of doctor in philofophy and medicine in that univerfity, after which he vifited Rome, Naples, &c. with much greater advantage than our travellers ufually do; the year 1696, he fettled at Stepney, and returning home about the middle of where, tho' but 23 years of age, he prefently came into great repute by his fuccefs in practice. In 1702, our young doctor exhibited to the publick, a manifeft evidence of his capacity for, as well as application to medical refcarches, in his treatife in titled, A mechanical account of prisons; an abstract of which was thought deferving a place in the Philofophical Tranfactions, No. 283, for January and February, 1703. A 2 in 31 We are obliged to defer inferting Mr. Craiefteyn's will to our next ; besides several curious and. entertaining pieces received from our ingenious correfpondents. A About the Middle of January was Published, N APPENDIX to the LONDON MAGAZINE for 1754, with a Beautiful FRONTISPIECE, a General TITLE curiously engraved, compleat INDEXES, and feveral other Things, neceffary to be bound up with the Volume, |