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2 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1703. 



bled with the itch, with the point of a pin pull out of the scabby skin little 

 bladders of water, and crack them like fleas upon their nails ; and that the 

 scabby slaves in the bagnio at Leghorn often practise this mutual kindness upon 

 each other, it came into my mind to examine what these bladders might 

 really be. 



I soon found an itchy person, and asking him where he felt the greatest and 

 most acute itching, he pointed to a great many little pustules not yet scabbed 

 over of which picking out one with a very fine needle, and squeezing from it 

 a thin water, I took out a very small white globule, scarcely discernible : ob- 

 serving this with a microscope, I found it to be a very minute animal, in shape 

 resembling a tortoise, of a whitish colour, a little dark upon the back, with 

 some thin and long hairs, of nimble motion, with 6 feet, a sharp head, with 

 2 little horns at the end of the snout, as is represented in fig. 1 and 2, pi. i. 



* Not satisfied with the first discovery, I repeated the search in several itchy 

 persons of diflTerent age, complexion, and sex, and at different seasons of the 

 year, and in all found the same animals, but not in all the pustules. 



And though, by reason of their minuteness, and colour the same with the 

 skin, it be hard to discern these animals on the surface of the body, yet I have 

 sometimes seen them on the joints of the fingers, in the little furrows of the cu- 

 ticula, where with their sharp head they first begin to enter, and by thus 



of the contagion fully pointed out, 4. De Variolis et Morbilis, (with an appendix containing a 

 Latin translation, by three different translators, of Rhazes on the Small Pox) 1747 ; in which he 

 showed himself a strenuous advocate for inoculation, then but just introduced into England. 5. Me- 

 dicina Sacra, 1749 5 being an explanation of the diseases mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. 

 6. A Treatise on the Scurvy, 1749 ; annexed to Sutton's Account of a New Method of extracting 

 Foul Air out of Ships ; the adoption of which in his Majesty's navy was chiefly due to the exertions 

 of Dr. Mead. 7. Monita et Praecepta Medica, 1757 } a work which contains many excellent practical 

 hints, relative to the treatment of various diseases both acute and chronical. This work was reedited in 

 1773, with notes, by Sir Clifton Wintringham, in 2 vols. 8vo. His collected works make a 4to. vol. 

 Although Dr. Mead did not make any important discoveries in anatomy or physiology, nor introduce 

 new and improved method of treating diseases ; yet is he entitled to the praise of having written 

 many useful and valuable works, calculated to promote the knowledge of medicine and natural his- 

 tory. He was critically and profoundly conversant with the ancient languages, and his Latinity is 

 distinguished for correctness, elegance, and perspicuity. His library was stored with the rarest and 

 most esteemed works both ancient and modern, and was always accessible, (as well as his gallery of 

 paintings and cabinet of antiquities) to men of letters and science, whether natives or foreigners. 

 His liberality in this and other respects, (see the life of Friend, p. 423 of vol. iv. of these Abridg- 

 ments) joined to the celebrity he had acquired by his various writings, procured him the most flatter- 

 ing attention from all quarters, and particularly from illustrious travellers who visited this country ; 

 and although a well-educated British physician had ever been regarded as a most respectable character, 

 yet in the instance of Dr. Mead that character seemed to bare attained to its highest degree of dig- 

 nity and lustre. 



