MEAD, RICHARD (1673-1754), physician, was born on August 11, 1673, at Stepney (near London), where his father, at one time minister of the parish, had been ejected for nonconformity in 1662. He was sent to Utrecht, where he studied for three years under Grmvius ; having decided to follow the medical profession, lie then went to Leyden and attended the lectures of Hermann and Pitcairn. In 1695 he graduated in philosophy and physic at Padua' and in the following year lie returned to his native place, entering at once on a successful practice. His Mechanical Account of Poisons appeared in 1702, and in 1703 he was admitted to the Royal Society, to whose Transactions he contributed in that year a paper on the parasitic nature of scabies. In the same year he was also elected physician to St Thomas's Hospital, and appointed to read anatomical lectures at the Surgeons' Hall. On the death of Radcliffe in 1714 Mead became the recognized head of his profession ; he attended Queen Anne on her death-bed, and in 1727 was appointed physician to George II., having previously served him in that capacity when he was prince of Wales. He died on February 16, 1754. For his place in the annals of medical science see MEDICINE, p. 811 of the present volume.

Besides the Mechanical Account of Poisons, of which a second edition appeared in 1708, Mead published a treatise Dc Lnperio Solis et Lunw in Corpora Humana et Morbis rode Oriandis (1704), A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it (1720), De Variolis et Morbillis Dissertatio (1747), Mediea Sacra, sire de Morbis insignioribu‘Qui in L'ibliis menwrantur Commentarius (1748), On the AS'euriT (1749), and Momita et Prereepta Medica (1751). A life of Mead by Dr Maty appeared in 1755.