160 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. the only remaining Arabic manuscript of the Essay of Rhazes, which is preserved at Leyden. Mead had been long before instrumental in pro- moting inoculation for the small-pox. The Prince of Wales desired him, in 1721, to superintend the inoculation of some condemned criminals, intend- ing afterwards to encourage the practice, by em- ploying it in his own family : the experiment amply succeeded, and the individuals on whom it was made recovered their liberty. When the terrible plague which ravaged Mar- seilles communicated a dread of its recurrence in England, the question of contagion was warmly agitated. The majority of the French physicians discredited its contagious origin, and the interests of commerce in our own country favoured the negative view. On the other hand the risk of neglecting to guard against the deadly invader, induced the government to apply to Mead for ad- vice on the occasion. After a careful examination of the subject he declared his opinion that the plague is a contagious distemper, — and a quaran- tine was accordingly enjoined. In his Short Dis- course concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the methods to be used to prevent it, he has given ample directions for the system of Medical Police which ought to be enforced in case of the actual occurrence of the plague, — a calamity from which we have happily escaped. This tract excited so much interest at a period of alarm, that it passed through seven editions in one year. Without the interposition of Dr. Mead there is reason to believe that the invention of Sutton for expelling the foul and corrupted air from ships
