Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

OR,

LIVES,

CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL,

OF THE MOST EMINENT PERSONS OF ALL AGES, COUNTRIES, CON-
DITIONS, AND PROFESSIONS,

[blocks in formation]

PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD; G. KEARSLEY, FLEET-STREET; AND B. CROSBY
AND CO. STATIONERS' COURT, LUDGATE-STREET.-ALSO FÖR BELL AND BRAD
FUTE, EDINBURGH; AND J. ARCHER, DUBLIN.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

MOY WH

2918 of 02

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY.

MEA

M

MEA

MEAD, RICHARD, M. D. a physician of of this work, the theory of which will at pre

great eminence, was son of the rev. Matthew Mead, a presbyterian divine, who was minister of Stepney during the government of Cromwell, and being ejected in 1662, continued to reside in that parish, preaching to a numerous congregation of dissenters. He was descended from a considerable family in Buckinghamshire, and possessed a handsome fortune; and having many children, he educated them at home under a private tutor. Richard, his eleventh child, was born at Stepney in 1673. In 1683, his father having been accused of participation in a plot against the government, thought proper to retire into Holland. Richard was placed with an excellent classical scholar, who had been second master of Eton school; and in 1689 he was sent to complete his preliminary studies at Utrecht, under the learned Grævius. After residing there for three years, he removed to Leyden for the study of physic, and attended the lectures of Herman on botany, and of Pitcairne on the theory and practice of medicine. From the latter he imbibed the mathematical principles of that science, which were prevalent in his earliest writings. He next visited Italy, and in 1695 he took his degrees in philosophy and physic in the university of Padua. Returning to England in 1696, he settled in his native parish, and commenced the practice of his profession with success. In 1699 he married the daughter of a merchant in London. His first publication, entitled, "A Mechanical Account of Poisons," appeared in 1702, in octavo. The medical sect to which he had attached himself is declared by the title

VOL. VII.

sent obtain few partisans; indeed he himself in mature age retracted it in several points. There are, however, many curious observations in the volume, which was well received by the public, and established his reputation. It has been many times reprinted, and was translated into Latin by Joshua Nelson. He was soon after elected into the Royal Society, and in 1703 was chosen physician to St. Thomas's hospital, on which occasion he took up his residence in the city of London. In 1704, he published his treatise "De imperio Solis et Lunæ in Corpore humana et Morbis inde oriundis,' octavo. The Newtonian theory of attraction is the foundation of his reasoning in this piece. It was afterwards much enlarged, and the theory of the tides was farther employed in elucidating the subject. In 1707 he received the diploma of doctor of physic from the university of Oxford, through the interest, as is supposed, of Dr. Radcliffe, who was not averse to patronising a junior of rising. reputation,: when he was himself declining. This degree gave him admission into the College of Physi-: cians as a fellow, and to the professional ho nours exclusively attached to that quality. He was called into consultation in the last illness of queen Anne a few days before her death, and pronounced more decisively on her danger than the court physicians had done. also communicated his opinion to Dr. Radciiffe, who availed himself of it to excuse his own attendance. On the death of that physician in 1714, Dr. Mead took his house in Bloomsbury-square; and from that time seems

B

He

« AnteriorContinuar »