MEAD

mead, richard (1673-1754), english physician, eleventh child of matthew mead (1630-1699), independent divine, was born on the 11th of august 1673 at stepney, london. he studied at utrecht for three years under j. g. graevius; having decided to follow the medical profession, he then went to leiden and attended the lectures of paul hermann and archibald pitcairne. in 1695 he graduated in philosophy and physic at padua, and in 1696 he returned to london, 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 elected physician to st thomas's hospital, and appointed to read anatomical lectures at the surgeons' hall. on the death of john radcliffe in 1714 mead became the recognized head of his profession; he attended queen anne on her deathbed, and in 1727 was appointed physician to george ii., having previously served him in that capacity when he was prince of wales. he died in london on the 16th of february 1754. besides the _mechanical account of poisons_ (2nd ed., 1708), mead published a treatise _de imperio solis et lunae in corpora humana et morbis inde oriundis_ (1704), _a short discourse concerning pestilential contagion, and the method to be used to prevent it_ (1720), _de variolis et morbillis dissertatio_ (1747), _medica sacra, sive de morbis insignioribus qui in bibliis memorantur commentarius_ (1748), _on the scurvy_ (1749), and _monita et praecepta medica_ (1751). a _life_ of mead by dr matthew maty appeared in 1755. mead. (1) a word now only used more or less poetically for the commoner form "meadow," properly land laid down for grass and cut for hay, but often extended in meaning to include pasture-land. "meadow" represents the oblique case, _maedwe_, of o. eng. _maed_, which comes from the root seen in "mow"; the word, therefore, means "mowed land." cognate words appear in other teutonic languages, a familiar instance being ger. _matt_, seen in place-names such as zermatt, andermatt, &c. (see grass.) (2) the name of a drink made by the fermentation of honey mixed with water. alcoholic drinks made from honey were common in ancient times, and during the middle ages throughout europe. the greeks and romans knew of such under the names of [greek: hodromeli] and _hydromel_; _mulsum_ was a form of mead with the addition of wine. the word is common to teutonic languages (cf. du. _mede_, ger. _met_ or _meth_), and is cognate with gr. [greek: methu], wine, and sansk. _madhu_, sweet drink. "metheglin," another word for mead, properly a medicated or spiced form of the drink, is an adaptation of the welsh _meddyglyn_, which is derived from _meddyg_, healing (lat. _medicus_) and _llyn_, liquor. it therefore means "spiced or medicated drink," and is not etymologically connected with "mead."