stop to the progress
of the infection. Dr. _Mead_, whose deserved reputation may not
unjustly be said to have merited that mark of distinction, was
consulted on these critical and important points, by command of their
excellencies, the lords justices of the kingdom, in his majesty's
absence: how equal he was to this momentous talk, sufficiently appears
from the discourse he published on that occasion: the approbation this
performance met with, may be estimated from the reception it
universally found; seven impressions were sold of it in the space of
one year, and in the beginning of 1722, the author gave an eighth, to
which he prefixed a long preface, particularly calculated to refute
what had been advanced in _France_, concerning the absence of
contagion in the malady that had afflicted them: he also now added a
more distinct description of the plague, and its causes; and confirmed
the utility of the measures he had recommended, for preventing its
extension, from examples of good success, where the same had been put
in practice: to these he has likewise annexed, a short chapter
relating to the cure of this deplorable affliction.--In 1744, this
work was carried to a ninth edition, wherein, to use the doctor's own
expression, he has "here and there added some new _strokes_ of
reasoning, and, as the painters say, retouched the _ornaments_, and
heightened the _colouring_ of the _piece_." Here it may not be
improper to take notice, that it is in this last impression of his
_discourse on the plague_, that our author appears to have first
adopted his theory of the properties and affections of the _nervous
fluid_, or _animal spirits_, upon which he has also founded his latter
reasonings on the subject of poisons, as well as in respect to the
influence of the sun and moon on human bodies.

In 1723, Dr. _Mead_ was appointed to speak the anniversary Harveian
oration, before the members of the college of physicians, when, ever
studious of the honour of his profession, he applied himself to wipe
off the obloquy, thought to be reflected upon it, by those who
maintained the _practice_ of _physic_ at _Rome_, to have been
confined to _slaves_ or _freed-men_, and not deemed worthy the
attention of an _old Roman_: which oration was made publick in 1724,
and to it was annexed, _a dissertation upon some coins, struck by the_
Smyrnaeans, _in honour of physicians_.[13]

[13] Dissertatio de nummis quibusdam, a _Smyrnaeis_, in
medic