Richard Mead: famed physician of St. Thomas’ Hospital

  • About
  • Current Issue
  • New Arrivals
  • Sections
  • Past Issues

Richard Mead

June 3, 2020

Arpan K Banerjee
Solihull, UK

 

Mezzotint of Richard Mead.
Richard Mead. Mezzotint by R. Houston after A. Ramsay. Credit: Wellcome Collection. (CC BY 4.0)

Richard Mead was born on 11 August 1673, the eleventh child of Matthew Mead, a preacher and somewhat controversial character of his time.1 Matthew Mead was a scholar and Fellow of King’s College Cambridge, although he resigned from the latter post before being expelled by the authorities for the ill will he had generated. He preached in Stepney, London, preaching his last sermon in May 1699, the year of his death. He published several books and sermons but of particular interest is “Solomon’s Prescription for the Removal of Pestilence” in 1666, the year after the great plague of London. Both father and son were drawn to this topic of inquiry.

Richard Mead studied in Utrecht, Holland, for three years followed by Leiden, and obtained a medical degree in 1695 from Padua, Italy, which was then a great seat of medical learning. The following year he returned to London, where he established a flourishing private practice. He published his famous book Mechanical Account of Poisons in 1702,2 which resulted in admission to the Fellowship of the Royal Society the following year. His interest turned to infections and he published a paper on the parasitic origins of scabies in the Royal Society Transactions that year. He was also appointed to the prestigious job of physician at St. Thomas’ Hospital, one of England’s premier teaching hospitals and medical schools.3

He set about instructing students in anatomy, which would have been unusual for physicians to do instead of surgeons. Mead was an astute observer and meticulous and methodical in his note keeping. His interest in infections led him to observe that deaths from measles were often from secondary pneumonia. He was one of the earliest physicians to note this.3 Mead became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and delivered the Harveian oration. He was an influential member of the hospital staff and believed that no one should be kept for more than four months in hospital. If longer stays were required, facilities should be created for long-term care.

In 1720 he published “A short discourse concerning Pestilential contagion, and the Method to be used to contain it”4 in which he argued that contagion was caused by a living agent spread from one person to another by contact with inanimate objects. He hypothesized that the plague was a contagious disease caused by a microscopic living animalcule.5 Today we know that plague is caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacterium discovered by Dr. Alexandre Yersin at the Pasteur Institute in 1895, and the disease is transmitted by the bite of an infected rat flea.6 London had been badly affected by a plague pandemic in 1665 and regular outbreaks occurred periodically throughout the next century in cities around Europe.7 In 1722 Daniel Defoe published his famous Journal of the Plague Year about the 1665 outbreak.

Mead retired from his post at St. Thomas’ Hospital in 1715. In 1718 Cheselden was appointed surgeon at St. Thomas’ Hospital and continued the anatomy instruction.3 These two men were the medical giants of their era and have been commemorated with busts, which generations of students have walked past in the long corridors of the hospital.

In 1721 Mead conducted research into smallpox inoculation and seemed to have anticipated Jenner by over sixty years.8 He was a sociable man and attended to the upper echelons of Georgian society, including Isaac Newton, Queen Anne, and King George II. He was also involved with charitable work, where he helped to start an on-site pharmacy at The Foundling Hospital9 (started by Thomas Coram in 1741), which was a home for orphaned and abandoned children.

In 1749 he wrote his last book, which was on scurvy,10 although he contributed to the book Pharmacopoeia with a collection of his prescriptions that were published posthumously. Mead was also a bibliophile, amassing a collection of around 10,000 books, which was sadly broken up on his death on February 16, 1754.

Mead and his successor Cheseldon helped enhance the reputation of St. Thomas’ Hospital, London as a center of medical excellence and learning, a reputation which continues to this day.

 

References

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mead
  2. Mead R A mechanical account of Poisons 1702
  3. Mcinnes E M St Thomas’s Hospital 1963 Allen and Unwin
  4. Mead R A Short Discourse concerning Pestilence Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it. 1720
  5. Santer M The Cause of the Plague and Our Understanding of Airborne Diseases 2020 https://medium.com/science-uncovered/plague-and-our-understanding-of-airborne-diseases-b36ee74b9913
  6. Banerjee A.K A Brief History of Pandemics https://medium.com/history-uncut/a-brief-history-of-pandemics-d9f372c89484 2020
  7. De Lacey M Contagion Catches On: Medical Ideology in Britain 1730-1800 2017 Springer
  8. Pearce JMS The Gold –Headed Cane 2019 Hektoen International
  9. https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/news/generous-georgian-dr-richard-mead
  10. Mead R On the Scurvy 1749

 


 

ARPAN K. BANERJEE, MBBS (LOND), FRCP, FRCR, FBIR, qualified in medicine at St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, London. He was a consultant radiologist in Birmingham from 1995-2019. He served on the scientific committee of the Royal College of Radiologists 2012-2016. He was Chairman of the British Society for the History of Radiology from 2012-2017. He is Treasurer of ISHRAD and adviser to radiopaedia. He is the author/co-author of seven books including Classic Papers in Modern Diagnostic Radiology 2005 and “The History of Radiology” OUP 2013.

 

Spring 2020  |  Sections  |  Physicians of Note

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
Comments
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
Cookie SettingsAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT

Site Map | Privacy | www.hektoen.org

Hektoen International Journal is published by the Hektoen Institute of Medicine

1339 S. Wood Street, Suite G, Chicago, IL. 60608
ISSN 2155-3017 - Copyright © 2009
[email protected]
Visit us at: www.hekint.org| www.hektoeninternational.org

Back to Top