The Project Gutenberg eBook ofMedica SacraThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Medica SacraAuthor: Richard MeadTranslator: Thomas StackRelease date: February 7, 2010 [eBook #31203]Most recently updated: January 6, 2021Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive/Canadian Libraries)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEDICA SACRA ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Medica SacraAuthor: Richard MeadTranslator: Thomas StackRelease date: February 7, 2010 [eBook #31203]Most recently updated: January 6, 2021Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
Title: Medica Sacra
Author: Richard MeadTranslator: Thomas Stack
Author: Richard Mead
Translator: Thomas Stack
Release date: February 7, 2010 [eBook #31203]Most recently updated: January 6, 2021
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEDICA SACRA ***
ByRICHARD MEAD,
Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians atLondonandEdinburgh, and of the Royal Society, and Physician to his Majesty.
Translated from the Latin,
Under theAUTHOR’sInspection,
ByTHOMAS STACK, M.D.F.R.S.
LONDON:
Printed forJ. Brindley, late Bookseller to his Royal Highness the Prince ofWales, in New Bond-street.M DCCLV.
Πἁντα δοχιμἁζετε τὸ καλὸν κατἑχετε.D. Paul. 1 Ep. ad Thessal. v. 21.Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
Bookswrote by the late learned Dr. MEAD, and sold byJ. Brindley, Bookseller, inNew Bond Street.
I. A Mechanical Account of Poisons in several Essays, 4th Edition. Price 5s.1747
II. A Discourse on the Plague, 9th Edit. Price 4s.1744
III. —— on the Small Pox and Measles; to which is annexed, a Treatise on the same Disease by the celebrated Arab. Phys.Abubeker Rhazes. Price 4s.
IV. —— on the Scurvy; to which is annexed, An historical Account of a new Method for extracting the foul Air out of Ships, &c. with the Description and Draught of the Machines by which it is performed: In two Letters to a friend. BySamuel Sutton, the Inventor. Price 3s 6d1749
V. —— on the Influence of the Sun and Moon upon human Bodies, and the Diseases thereby produced. 4s1748
VI. Medical Precepts and Cautions. Price 5s.1751
VII. A Commentary on the Diseases mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. Price 4s.1755
The above seven Discourses are all translated under the Author’s Inspection, by Dr.Stack,M.D.F.R.S.
VIII. De Variolis & Morbillis Liber, huic accessitRhazesMedici inter Arabas celeberrimi, de iisdem Morbis Commentarius. Price 4s.1747
IX. De Imperio Solis ac Lunæ in Corpora Humana, & Morbis inde Oriundis, Editio Altera, Auctior. & Emendatior. Price 4s.1746
X. Medica Sacra; sive de Morbis Insignioribus qui in Bibliis memorantur Commentarius. Price 3s 6d1749
XI. Monita & Precepta Medica. Price 4s 6d1751
N. B.The above are to be had either in Sets, uniformly bound, or separate.
I
T is a natural, nor can it be deemed an illaudable curiosity to be desirous of being informed of whatever relates to those who have eminently distinguished themselves forsagacity, parts, learning, or what else may have exalted their characters, and thereby entitled them to a degree of respect superior to the rest of their cotemporaries. The transmission of such particulars, has ever been thought no more than discharging a debt due to posterity; wherefore it is hoped, that what is here intended to be offered to the publick, relative to a gentleman, who is universally allowed to have merited so largely in the republic of letters, and more particularly in his own profession, a profession, not less useful than respectable, will not be judged impertinent or disagreeable.
Our learned author was descended from a distinguished family in Buckinghamshire, and born at Stepney the second of August 1673. His father, Mr. Matthew Mead, was held in great esteem as a divine among the presbyterians,and was possessed, during their usurped power, of the living of Stepney; from whence he was ejected the second year after the restoration of king Charles the IId. Nevertheless, tho’ he had fifteen children, of whom our Richard was the seventh, he found means, with a moderate fortune, to give them a compleat education. To this purpose he kept a tutor in his house to instruct them, and they were taught latin rather by practice than by rules.
Party-rage perhaps never run higher than about the latter end of Charles the IId’s reign; hereby this little domestic academy was dispersed in 1683. The king, or rather his ministers, were determined to be revenged on those, whom they could not prevail on to concur with their measures. Mr. Mead (the father) wasaccused of being concerned in some designs against the court; wherefore being conscious that even his being a presbyterian, rendered him obnoxious to those in power, he chose rather to consult his security by a retreat, then to rely upon his innocence; to this purpose he sought and found that repose in Holland, which was denied him in his own country; having first placed his son Richard at a school, under the tuition of an able master of his own principles: under whose care our young gentleman, by a ready genius, strong memory, and close application, made a great proficiency. At seventeen years of age he was sent to Utrecht, to be further instructed in liberal knowledge, by the celebrated Grævius, with whom he continued three years.
Having determined to devote hisattention to medicine, he removed from Utrecht to Leyden, where he attended Dr. Herman’s botanical lectures, and was initiated into the theory and practice of physick, by the truely eminent Dr. Pitcairn, who then held the professorial chair of this science in that university: here our young student’s assiduity and discernment, so effectually recommended him to the professor, who was not very communicative of his instructions out of the college, that he established a lasting correspondence with him, and received several observations from him, which he inserted in one of his subsequent productions.
His academical studies being finished, Mr. Mead sought further accomplishments in Italy, whither he was accompanied by his elderbrother,[1]Mr. Polhill, and Dr. Thomas Pellet, afterwards president of the college of physicians.
In the course of this tour, Mr. Mead commenced doctor in philosophy and medicine at Padua, the twenty-sixth of August 1695, and afterwards spent some time at Naples and Rome: how advantageous to himself, as well as how useful to mankind he rendered his travels, his works bear ample testimony.
About the middle of the year 1696, he returned home, and settled at Stepney, in the neighbourhood where he was born: the success,he met with in his practice here, established his reputation, and was a happy presage of his future fortunes. If it be remembered, that our author was, when he began to practise, no more than twenty-three years old, that only three years, including the time taken up in his travels, were appropriated to his medical attainments, it may be, not unreasonably, admitted, that nothing but very uncommon talents, join’d to an extraordinary assiduity, could have enabled him to distinguish himself, at this early a period of life, in so extensive, and so important a science.
In 1702, Dr. Mead exhibited to the public, a manifest evidence of his capacity for, as well as application to medical researches, in hismechanical account of poisons; which he informs us was begun some yearsbefore he had leisure to publish it. These subjects, our author justly observes, had been treated hitherto very obscurely, to place therefore the surprizing phœnomena, arising from these active bodies in a more intelligible light, was his professed intention; how well he succeeded, the reception this piece universally met with, even from its first publication,[2]sufficiently declares. In 1708 he gave a new edition of it, with some few additions, the principal of which consists in some strictures on the external use of mercury in raising salivations. He has considerably further explained his sentiments upon the same head, in the edition of this work printed in 1747.
This last edition has received somany additions and alterations, as might almost entitle it to the character of a new performance.——A stiffness of opinion has been but too commonly observed, especially among writers on science; and age has been seldom found to have worn out this pertinacity: a favourite hypothesis has been defended even in opposition to the most obvious experiments, with a degree of obstinacy ever incompatible with the real interests of truth. On the contrary, our ingenious author has set before his literary successors, an example of sagacity and fortitude, truely worthy of imitation, in the victory he obtained over these self-sufficient pre-possessions; length of years was so far from rivetting in him an inflexibility of sentiment, that, joined to a most extended experience, it served only to teach him, that he had been mistaken: his candid retraction of whathe thought to have been advanced amiss by himself, cannot be better expressed than in his own words. “Neither have I, says he,[3]been ashamed on some occasions, (as the Latins said)cædere vineta mea, to retrench or alter whatever I judged to be wrong.Dies diem docet.I think truth never comes so well recommended, as from one who owns his error: and it is allowed that our first master never shewed more wisdom and greatness of mind, then in confessing his mistake, in taking a fracture of a skull, for the natural suture;[4]and the compliment, which Celsus[5]makes to him on this occasion, is very remarkable and just;” nor is it less applicable to Dr. Mead at presentthan it was to the Coan sage in his day. “More scilicet, inquit,magnorum virorum, & fiduciam magnarum rerum habentium. Nam levia ingenia, quia nihil habent, nihil sibi detrahunt: magno ingenio, multaque nihilominus habituro, convenit etiam simplex veri erroris confessio; præcipueque in eo ministerio, quod utilitatis causâ posteris traditur.”
The insertion of additions and improvements in the title of new editions of books, has been too generally, though sometimes justly, understood as little else than a contrivance of the bookseller, to animate a languishing sale; but this is far from being the case in respect to the works of our author, whose maturer sentiments on many of the subjects, he had before treated of, cannot be well comprehended, unless by a carefulperusal of his later corrections, seeing the alterations he has thought fit thereby to make in his earlier productions, are not less necessary to be attended to by the prudent practitioner, than they are really interesting to the unhappy patient: the truth of which cannot be more manifestly evinced, than by his last publication of his essays on poisons; wherein he entirely subverts his former hypothesis, and builds his reasonings upon a new foundation; he also tacitly admits his former experiments to have been too precipitately made, and the conclusions deduced from them, to have been too hastily drawn.
To illustrate what has been advanced upon this head, it will not be improper to observe, that when Dr. Mead first wrote these essays, he was of opinion, “That the effect ofpoisons, especially those of venemous animals, might be accounted for, by their affecting the blood only: but the consideration of the suddenness of their mischief, too quick to be brought about in the course of the circulation, (for the bite of a rattle snake killed a dog in less than a quarter of an hour)[6]together with the nature of the symptoms entirely nervous, induced him to change his sentiments,[7]” and to conclude, that the poison must be conveyed by a medium of much greater quickness, which could be no other than the animal spirits.
From hence our author is led to prefix to the last edition of this performance, an inquiry into the existenceand nature of this imperceptible fluid, with which we have been but very imperfectly acquainted. He has also added several new experiments, tending to confirm this theory, and explain the properties of the viperine venom, particularly by venturing totasteit; at the same time he has likewise contradicted some of those he had formerly made, whereby he had been induced to believe, this poison partook of a degree of acidity: for instance, he formerly asserted that he had seen this sanies, “as an acid, turn the blue tincture ofheliotropium, to a red colour;[8]” whereas his more modern trials convinced him, it produced no alteration at all.
The essays on thetarantulaandmad dog, are likewise considerably enlarged in the last impression; especiallythe latter, in which is now comprehended a regular and elegant history of the symptoms attending the bite of this enraged animal, the reason of the consequenthydrophobia, and more extensive directions for the cure: also an accurate description of thelichen cinereus terrestris, its efficacy, and manner of acting. A composition of equal parts of this plant and black pepper, was inserted, at our author’s desire, into the London dispensatory, in the year 1721, under the title ofpulvis antilyssus, which he afterwards altered by using two parts of the former, and only one of the latter, as it now stands: in 1735 he also recommended the use of this medicine in a loose sheet, intitled,a certain cure for the bite of a mad dog.
In treating of poisonous minerals, exclusive of what is added concerningmercurial unctions, our author has given a new analysis of the antient and modernarsenic; and his essay on deliterious plants, has afforded him an opportunity of enquiring into thecicuta, so much in use of old for killing, especially at Athens, and which is said to have been administered toSocratesin consequence of his condemnation. To this he has likewise subjoin’d an appendix, concerning the mischievous effects of the simple water distilled from thelauro-cerasus, or common laurel, which were first observed some years since inIreland, where, for the sake of its flavour, it was frequently mixed with brandy.—His observations upon venemous exhalations, are not less extended, nor ought the, as well useful as ornamental, plates added to this last edition, to pass unnoticed, particularly, “The anatomical description of theparts in a viper, and in a rattlesnake, which are concerned in their poison,” by our great anatomist the learned and ingenious Dr. Nichols.
In 1703 Dr.Meadcommunicated to the royal society, a letter published in Italy in 1687 (a copy of which he met with in the course of his travels) from Dr. Bonomo to Seignor Redi, containing some observations concerning the worms of human bodies;[9]whereby it is intended to prove, that the disease, we call the itch, proceeds merely from the biting of these animalcules: this opinion is espoused by our author in one of his latest performances,[10]wherein therefore he directs onlytopicalapplications for the cure of this troublesome disease.
The proofs our young physician had already given of literary merit, recommended him soon after the above-mentioned communication, to a seat among that learned body; in the same year he was also elected one of the physicians of St. Thomas’s hospital, and was employed by the surgeons company to read anatomical lectures at their hall, which he continued to do for some years.
In 1704 appeared his treatisede imperio solis ac lunæ in corpora humana, & morbis inde oriundis. At this time the Newtonian system of philosophy, from whence our author had chiefly deduced his reasonings upon this abstruse subject, were neither thoroughly understood, nor universally received: nevertheless whatevercavils were raised against his hypothesis, it was generally admitted, that his observations had their uses in practice.
The doctor thought proper to revise this juvenile production, and to give a new edition of it in 1748; when he not only altered the disposition of some of theold, but also introduced more than a littlenewmatter into that work: particularly he has placed some mathematical points in a clearer light, than they before appeared; he has entered into the discussion of “a difficult question, which has raised great contention among philosophers: viz. whereas water is more than eight hundred times heavier than air, how does it happen, that the latter when replete with watery vapours, depresses the mercury in the barometer; so that its fall isan indication of rain?[11]” he has also enquired into “the weight of the atmosphere on a human body, and its different pressure at different times;[12]” and he has illustrated and confirmed the medicinal part by several additional observations and cases, that promise real utility to the practice of physic. To the whole is now first adjoined a corollary tending to strengthen his reasonings upon the subject, by observations of the effects of storms on the human body; wherein, from the case of a lady who was seized in an instant with agutta serena, (that rendered her totally blind) on the night of the great storm which happened in 1703, he is led to give a distinct account of the cause and cure of that melancholly distemper.This work is also remarkably distinguished by many curious observations our author received from his ingenious preceptor in the art of healing, Dr.Pitcairne.
Our author’s distinguished genius for, and sedulous attention to the interests of his profession, procured him an acquisition of farther honours, as well as recommended him to the patronage of the most eminent of the faculty: in 1707 hisPaduan diplomafor doctor of physick, was confirmed by the university of Oxford; in 1716 he was elected fellow of the college of physicians, and served all the offices of that learned body, except that of president, which he declined when offered to him in 1744. Radcliff, the most followed physician of his day, in a particular manner espoused Dr. Mead, and in 1714, upon thedeath of the former, the latter succeeded him in his house, and the greater part of his practice; some years before which, he had quitted Stepney, and had resided in Austin Fryars.
Party-principles were far from influencing his attachments; though he was himself a zealous whig, he was equally the intimate ofGarth,Arbuthnot, andFriend: his connections, more especially, with the latter, are manifested not only in their mutual writings, (of which, more hereafter) but in that when Dr.Friendwas committed a prisoner to the Tower in 1723, upon a suggestion of his being concerned in the practices of BishopAtterburyagainst the government, Dr.Meadbecame one of his securities to procure his enlargement.
In 1719, an epidemic fever made great ravages at Marseilles; and tho’ the French physicians were very unwilling to admit, this disease to have been of foreign extraction or contagious; yet our government wisely thought it necessary, to consider of such measures as might be the most likely to prevent our being visited by so dangerous a neighbour; or in failure thereof, to put an early stop to the progress of the infection. Dr.Mead, whose deserved reputation may not unjustly be said to have merited that mark of distinction, was consulted on these critical and important points, by command of their excellencies, the lords justices of the kingdom, in his majesty’s absence: how equal he was to this momentous talk, sufficiently appears from the discourse he published on that occasion: the approbation this performance met with, may be estimatedfrom the reception it universally found; seven impressions were sold of it in the space of one year, and in the beginning of 1722, the author gave an eighth, to which he prefixed a long preface, particularly calculated to refute what had been advanced inFrance, concerning the absence of contagion in the malady that had afflicted them: he also now added a more distinct description of the plague, and its causes; and confirmed the utility of the measures he had recommended, for preventing its extension, from examples of good success, where the same had been put in practice: to these he has likewise annexed, a short chapter relating to the cure of this deplorable affliction.—In 1744, this work was carried to a ninth edition, wherein, to use the doctor’s own expression, he has “here and there added some newstrokesof reasoning, and, asthe painters say, retouched theornaments, and heightened thecolouringof thepiece.” Here it may not be improper to take notice, that it is in this last impression of hisdiscourse on the plague, that our author appears to have first adopted his theory of the properties and affections of thenervous fluid, oranimal spirits, upon which he has also founded his latter reasonings on the subject of poisons, as well as in respect to the influence of the sun and moon on human bodies.
In 1723, Dr.Meadwas appointed to speak the anniversary Harveian oration, before the members of the college of physicians, when, ever studious of the honour of his profession, he applied himself to wipe off the obloquy, thought to be reflected upon it, by those who maintained thepracticeofphysicatRome,to have been confined toslavesorfreed-men, and not deemed worthy the attention of anold Roman: which oration was made publick in 1724, and to it was annexed,a dissertation upon some coins, struck by theSmyrnæans,in honour of physicians.[13]
This publication was smartly attacked by Dr.Conyers Middletonin 1726,[14]who was replied to by several, and particularly, as it is said, by Dr.John Ward, professor ofrhetoricinGresham College. This gentleman was supposed by his opponent, to have been employed by Dr.Mead, who did not chuse to enter personally, into this little-importantdebate; upon which presumption, Dr.Middletonpublished a defence of his former dissertation in the succeeding year;[15]wherein he treats his respondents with no little contempt.[16]The merits of this dispute are not intended to be here discussed, but it may not be amiss to observe, thathowever displeased Dr.Middletonmay have been with his antagonists; in a work published several years after, he speaks of our author in the most respectful manner. In treating of an antique picture, he says, he believes it to be the first, and only one of the sort ever brought toEngland, “donecMeadiusnoster, artis medicæ decus, qui vita revera nobilis, vel principibus in republica viris, exemplum præbet, pro eo, quo omnibus fere præstat artium veterum amore, alias postea quasdam, & splendidiores, opinor, Roma quoque deportandas curavit.”[17]
In respect to this controversy, our author’seulogist[18]takes notice thatthere is reason to believe, that Dr.Meadhimself had some thoughts of more determinately explaining or confirming his sentiments upon this subject, in a work which he left unfinished, and which was designed to have been intitled,medicina vetus collectitia ex auctoribus antiquis non medicis.
However, this literary altercation, did not in the least affect our author’s medical reputation, for in 1727, soon after his present Majesty’s accession to the throne, whom he had the honour to serve in the same capacity while prince ofWales, he was appointed one of the royal physicians,and he had the happiness to see his two sons-in-law, Dr.Willmotand Dr.Nichols, his co-adjutors in that eminent station.
After having spent near fifty years in the constant hurry of an extensive and successful practice; after having lived (truely according to his own motto,non sibi sed toti) beyond that period assigned by the royal psalmist for the general term of mortality; when the infirmities of age would no longer permit him the free exercise of those faculties, which he had hitherto so advantageously employed in the service of the community, far from sinking into a supine indolence, or assuming a supercilious disregard of the world, he still continued his application, even in the decline of life, to the improvement of physic, and the benefit of mankind.
When he was grown unequal to the discharge of more active functions, and a retirement was become absolutely necessary, he took the opportunity of revising all his former writings: to this retreat therefore, and the happy protraction of so useful a life, the world is indebted for the improvements that appear in the latter editions of those works, which have already been taken notice of. It was not till now that our author could find leisure to perfect hisdiscourse on the small pox and measles,[19]which had been begun by him many years before.
As it was the principal design of thesememoirs, to lay before the public a concise and comprehensive history of Dr.Mead’s writings, the occasion of this universally admired performance, cannot be better given than from the author’s own account, contained inthe preface to it, in which also his connections with, and attachment to Dr.Friend, are further illustrated.
It appears that Dr.Mead, from having observed in the year 1708, that some of his patients in St.Thomas’s Hospital, recovered from a very malignant sort of the small pox, even beyond expectation, by a looseness seizing them on the ninth or tenth day of the disease, and sometimes earlier, first took the hint to try what might be done by opening the body with a gentle purge, on the decline of the distemper; finding the success of this experiment in a great measure answerable to his wishes, he communicated this method of practice to Dr.Friend, and met with his approbation.
The latter being, soon after, called to a consultation with two othereminent physicians, on the case of a young nobleman who lay dangerously ill of the small pox, proposed our author’s method; this was opposed till the fourteenth day from the eruption, when the case appearing desperate, they consented to give him a gentle laxative draught; which had a very good effect: Dr.Friendwas of opinion to repeat it, but was over-ruled, and the patient died the seventh day after.[20]
From the result of this case, the gentlemen of the faculty were greatly divided in opinion, as to the rectitude of this practice, insomuch that Dr.Friendthought himself under a necessity of vindicating it; and therefore sent to our author for the purport of their former conversation upon this topic, desiring it might be reduced into writing. Such wasthe friendship that mutually subsisted between these learned men, that this request was granted without hesitation, and Dr.Mead’s letter was shewn to Dr.Radcliffe, who prevailed upon our author to consent, that the same might be annexed to Dr.Friend’s intendeddefence; which, however he was advised by some friends, to drop at that time; whereby this letter lay by till the latter’s publication ofthe first and third books of Hippocrates’s epidemics, illustrated withnine commentaries concerning fevers. Of these theseventhtreats ofpurging in the putrid fever, which follows upon the confluent small pox: to which are annexed, in support of this opinion, letters from four physicians on that subject, and among them that from our author, which he had translated from the english into latin, enlarged and new modelled to serve this purpose.
This work gave rise to a controversy, maintained with an unbecoming warmth on both sides: among Dr.Friend’s principal opponents, may be reckoned Dr.Woodward; who, not contented with condemning a practice, experience has since evinced not only salutary in general, but in many cases absolutely necessary; likewise treated its favourers with contempt and ill-manners, and more particularly our author;[21]whose resentment upon this occasion, appears to have been carried to a justly exceptionable length, seeing it had not subsided twenty years after the death of his antagonist.[22]
Dr.Mead’s daily acquisition of knowledge and experience, enabled him to enlarge to many beneficial purposes, this performance, which, in all probability, was at first designed only to illustrate and vindicate the sentiments contained in the aforementioned letter; and it is but justice to say, the applause it has found among the learned, as well for the elegance of its diction, as the perspicuity of its precepts, is no more than what is truely due to it.——To this discourse is subjoin’d a latin translation, from the arabic ofRhazes’s treatise on thesmall poxandmeasles, a copy of the original having been obtained for this purpose by Dr.Mead, from the celebratedBoerhaave, betweenwhom there had long subsisted an intimate correspondence, nor did their reciprocally differing in some opinions, diminish the friendship they mutually manifested for each other.
The year 1749, furnished two new productions from our author; a translation of one of which follows these memoirs. The other is entitled,a discourse on the scurvy, affixed to Mr.Sutton’s second edition of hismethod for extracting the foul air out of ships.
It is more than possible that, but, for the patronage of Dr.Mead, this contrivance, which confers no less honour to the inventor, than utility to the public, might have been for ever stifled: our author, than whom no one more ardently wished for, or more zealously promoted the gloryand interest of his country, being thoroughly convinced of its efficacy, so earnestly, and so effectually recommended it to the lords of the admiralty, as to prevail over the obstinate opposition that was made against its being put into practice. To the same purpose in 1742, he explained the nature and conveniencies of this invention to the royal society,[23]and with the same view he confessedly wrote the last mentioned discourse, of which he made a present to Mr.Sutton.
Hismedical preceptsandcautions, which appeared in 1751, and was his last publication, affords an indisputable testimony, that length of years had not in the least impairedhis intellectual faculties. Our author has herein furnished the public, with the principal helps against most diseases which he had either learned by long practice, or deduced from rational principles.[24]Who could with the same propriety take upon himself to be an instructor and legislator in the medical world, as he who had been taught to distinguish truth from falsehood, in the course of so extended an experience, protracted now to almost threescore years? to this may be added, that he has so contrived to blend theutile dulci, by embellishing his precepts with all the delicacy of polite expression, as to render them at the same time not less entertaining than instructive.
However, this work was productive of two other little pieces, from two gentlemen of the faculty: oneby Dr.Summers; who in a pamphleton the success of warm bathing in paralytic cases, controverts Dr.Mead’s assertion, that “hot bathing is prejudicial to all paralytics” ... “calidæ vero immersiones omnibus paralyticis nocent[25].”—Some reflections upon the advocates for Mrs.Stephens’s medicines, in the cure of the stone and gravel, by our author, occasioned a letter to him on that subject by Dr.HartleyofBath. The former expressed himself in the following manner; “Neque temperare mihi possum, quin dicam in opprobrium nuper medicis nonnullis cessisse, quod insano pretio redimendi anile remedium magnatibus auctores fuerunt.[26]” ... “Nor canI forbear observing, tho’ I am extremely sorry for the occasion, that some gentlemen of the faculty a few years since acted a part much beneath their characters, first in suffering themselves to be imposed on, and then in encouraging the legislature to purchase an old woman’s medicine at an exorbitant price.”[27]Of this the latter complains as an unmerited indignity, “Illud interea(inquit)tanquem inopinatum, & ab æquitate tua alienum queri liceat,Te,qui in obvios quoscunque comis & urbanus esse, bene autem merentibus de re medica, vel etiam literaria quavis, summa cum benignitate favere soleas, in lithrontriptici fautores acerbiùs invectum fuisse; & non potius laudi illis dedisse, quod arcanum sine pretio vulgatum, virorum dignitate, fide, ingenio, artisnostræ peritiâ illustrium examini subjecerent, neque aliam viam ad præmium reportandum aperiri voluerint, quam quæ, veris licèt rerum inventoribus facilis & munita, jactatoribus tamen & falsiloquis esset impervia.[28]” ... In the mean while, I cannot but complain of it as a thing unexpected, and greatly inconsistent with your usual candour, thatYOU, who are so courteous and humane to all mankind, and so remarkably the patron of those who excel in the profession of physic, or indeed in any branch of learning, should so severely reproach the favourers of this lithontriptic medicine; and not rather have commended them, for submitting a secret, communicated to them without feeor reward, to the examination of some worthy physicians, eminent for integrity, ingenuity, and learning: and for endeavouring to excite the munificence of the publick in such a manner only, as to render it accessible to the true authors of an important discovery, but impervious to boasting impostors.
In enumerating the obligations the republic of letters is under to Dr.Mead, it would be injustice to omit taking notice, that to his generosity and public spirit, it is farther indebted for the first complete edition of the celebrated history ofThuanus.[29]
To enlarge upon his literary collections, and other curiosities, wouldat present be useless, seeing the world will soon be apprized of their value and contents from the catalogues that are already, and are yet about to be published of them; it may therefore suffice to say, that he did not shew more assiduity and judgment in collecting them, than he did candour and generosity in permitting the use of them to all that were competent judges, or that could benefit themselves, or the public by them.
It may, perhaps not unjustly, be said no Subject inEuropehad a cabinet so richly and so judiciously filled; to which the correspondence he maintained with the learned in all parts ofEurope, not a little contributed; nor can there be an higher instance given of his reputation in this respect, than in the king ofNapleshaving sent him the two first volumes of M.Bajurdi’s account ofthe antiquities found inHerculaneum, with the additional compliment of asking in return,only, a compleat collection of our author’s works, to which was adjoined, an invitation to visit that newly discovered subterraneous city: an invitation that could not but be greatly pleasing to a genius so inquisitive after knowledge, and which he declared, he should very gladly have embraced, had not his advanced years been an insuperable impediment, to the gratification of his curiosity. In short, his character abroad was so well known and established, that a foreigner of any taste, would have thought it a reproach to him, to have been inEnglandwithout seeing Dr.Mead.
As his knowledge was not limited only to his profession, the deserving in all sciences had not only free access to him, but always found a welcomereception, and at his table might daily be seen together the naturalist, the antiquarian, the mathematician, and the mechanic, with all whom he was capable of conversing in their respective terms; here might be seen united the magnificence of a prince, with the pleasures of the wise.
His munificence was conspicuous in that there was no remarkable publick charity to which he was not a benefactor, particularly he was one of the earliest promoters of, and subscribers to theFoundling hospital.
Let these specimens of his superior abilities and merit suffice for the present, nor let envy or detraction attempt to sully so exalted a character.—Soon after the publication of hismonita & præcepta medica, this ornament of his profession, anddelight of his acquaintance, grew more and more sensible of the natural infirmities attending his length of years; and with the utmost tranquillity and resignation, quietly sunk into the arms of death on the 16th ofFebruary1754. To whom may, with the greatest propriety, be applied a part of the epitaph inscribed to the memory of the celebratedGuicciardini, atFlorence;