Richard Mead (1673-1754) was a physician and book collector. He worked at St Thomas’s Hospital from 1703, published several medical treatises, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1705. Mead was involved in debates over the merits of smallpox inoculation and in 1721 was appointed by the Privy Council, with Sir Hans Sloane and John Arbuthnot, to investigate the cause of the plague.
Reference:
Anita Guerrini, ‘Mead, Richard (1673–1754)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18467 [accessed 7 July 2014]).
Dates: to
Occupation: Unknown
Relationship to Sloane: Virtual International Authority File: