OR,

LIVES,

CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL,

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

ARRANGED ACCORDING TO ALPHABETICAL ORDER.

12/33

Composed

BY JOHN AIKIN, M. D.

THE REV. THOMAS MORGAN,

1808.

By T. Davison, White-friars.

LUCRET. II.

PUBLIC

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, DURLIN.

Hikin

MEAD, Richard, M. D. a physician of of this work, the theory of which will at pregreat eminence, was son of the rev. Matthew sent obtain few partisans ; indeed he himself Mead, a presbyterian divine, who was minister in mature age retracted it in several points. of Stepney during the government of Cromwell, There are, however, many curious observations and being ejected in 1662, continued to reside in the volume, which was well received by the in that parish, preaching to a numerous con- public, and established his reputation. It has gregation of dissenters. He was descended been many times reprinted, and was translated from a considerable family in Buckinghamshire, into Latin by Joshua Nelson. He was soon after and possessed a handsome fortune ; and having elected into the Royal Society, and in 1703

; many children, he educated them at home

was chosen physician to St. Thomas's hospital, under a private tutor. Richard, his eleventh on which occasion he took up his residence in child, was born at Stepney in 1673. In 1683, the city of London. In 1704, he published his father having been accused of participation his treatise “ De imperio Solis et Lunæ in in a plot against the government, thought pro- Corpore humana et Morbis inde oriundis,” per to retire into Holland.

Richard was octavo. The Newtonian theory of attraction placed with an excellent classical scholar, who is the foundation of his reasoning in this piece. had been second master of Eton school ; and It was afterwards much enlarged, and the in 1689 he was sent to complete his preliminary theory of the tides was farther employed in studies at Utrecht, under the learned Grævius. elucidating the subject. In 1707 he received After residing there for three years, he remov- the diploma of doctor of physic from the unied to Leyden for the study of physic, and at- 'versity of Oxford, through the interest, as is tended the lectures of Herman on botany, and supposed, of Dr. Radcliffe, who was not ayerse of Pitcairne on the theory and practice of to patronising a junior of rising reputatio,: medicine. From the latter he imbibed the when he was himself declining. This degree mathematical principles of that science, whick gave him admission into the College of Physiwere prevalent in his earliest writings. He cians as a fellow, and to the professional kar next visited Italy, and in 1095 he took his de- nours exclusively attached to that quality : Ive grees in philosophy and physic in the univer- was called into consultation in the last liness sity of Padua. Returning to England in 1996, of queen Anne a few days before her death, he settled in his native parish, and commenced and pronounced more decisively on her danger the practice of his profession with success. In than the court physicians had done. He 1699 he married the daughter of a merchant in also communicated his opinion to Dr. RadLondon. His first publication, entitled, “A ciiffe, who availed himself of it to excuse his

. Mechanical Account of Poisons," appeared in own attendance. On the death of that phy1702, in octavo. The medical sect to which sician in 1714, Dr. Mead took his house in he had attached himself is declared by the title Bloomsbury-square; and from that time seems

VOL. VII.

B