Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 767

RICHARD MEAD (1673-1754) Mechanica expositio venenorum. Expensis Bernardini Gessarii 1739 [8] 223 [1] pp., fold. plate. 18.4 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 766

This Latin translation of Mead's Mechanical account of poisons was made by Joshua Nelson (b. 1698) and was first published at Leiden in 1737. Although physiological theory was still in its developmental stages, this work illustrates Mead's surprisingly modern approach to his research. Writing in the July 1935 issue of the Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine, C.-E.A. Winslow, professor of public health at the Yale School of Medicine, stated that Mead "maintains throughout a mechanistic approach with an indomitable conviction that biological phenomena were governed by physical and chemical laws. He relies upon experiment to unveil those laws. And he is eager and open-minded in the attempt to utilize the newest results of the physical science of the day in explaining the reactions which occur in living tissue" (p. 519).

See Related Record(s): 768 755

Gift of William B. Bean, M.D