a wholesome, agreeable liquor, prepared with honey and water.

One of the best methods of preparing mead is as follows: Into twelve gallons of water put the whites of six eggs; mixing these well together, and to the mixture adding twenty pounds of honey. Let the liquor boil an hour, and when boiled, add cinnamon, ginger, cloves, mace, and rosemary. As soon as it is cold, put a spoonful of yeast to it, and turn it up, keeping the vessel filled as it works; when it has done working, stop it up close; and, when fine, bottle it off for use.

Thorley says, that mead not inferior to the best of foreign wines may be made in the following manner: Put three pounds of the finest honey to one gallon of water, and two lemon peels to each gallon; boil it half an hour, well scummed; then put in, while boiling, lemon peel: work it with yeast; then put it in your vessel with the peel, to stand five or six months, and bottle it off for use. If it is to be kept for several years, put four pounds to a gallon of water.

The author of the Dictionary of Chemistry directs to choose the whitest, purest, and best tasted honey, and to put it into a kettle with more than its weight of water: a part of this liquor must be evaporated by boiling, and the liquor scummed, till its consistence is such, that a fresh egg shall be supported on its surface without sinking more than half its thickness into the liquor; then the liquor is to be strained, and poured through a funnel into a barrel; this barrel, which ought to be nearly full, must be exposed to a heat as equable as possible, from 20 to 27 or 28 degrees of Mr Reaumur's thermometer, taking care that the bung-hole be slightly covered, but not closed. The phenomena of the spiritual fermentation will appear in this liquor, and will subside during two or three months, according to the degree of heat; after which they will diminish and cease. During this fermentation, the barrel must be filled up occasionally with more of the same kind of liquor of honey, some of which ought to be kept apart, on purpose to replace the liquor which flows out of the barrel in froth. When the fermentation ceases, and the liquor has become very vinous, the barrel is then to be put into a cellar, and well closed; a year afterwards the mead will be fit to be put into bottles.

Mead is a liquor of very ancient use in Britain. See FEAST.

Dr Richard, a celebrated English physician, was born at Stepney near London, where his father, the Reverend Mr Matthew Mead, had been one of the two ministers of that parish; but in 1662 was ejected for nonconformity, but continued to preach at Stepney till his death. As Mr Mead had a handsome fortune, he bestowed a liberal education upon 13 children, of whom Richard was the eleventh; and for that purpose kept a private tutor in his house, who taught him the Latin tongue. At 16 years of age Richard was sent to Utrecht, where he studied three years under the famous Gravius; and then choosing the profession of physic, he went to Leyden, where he attended the lectures of the famous Pitcairn on the theory and practice of medicine, and Herman's botanical courses. Having also spent three years in these studies, he went with his brother and two other gentlemen to visit Italy, and at Padua took his degree of doctor of philosophy and physic in 1695. Afterwards he spent some time at Naples and at Rome; and returning home the next year, settled at Stepney, where he married, and practised physic, with a success that laid the foundation of his future greatness.

In 1703, Dr Mead having communicated to the Royal Society an analysis of Dr Bonomo's discoveries relating to the cutaneous worms that generate the itch, which they inserted in the Philosophical Transactions; this, with his account of poisons, procured him a place in the Royal Society, of which Sir Isaac Newton was then president. The same year he was elected physician of St Thomas's hospital, and was also employed by the surgeons to read anatomical lectures in their hall, which obliged him to remove into the city. In 1707 his Paduan diploma for doctor of physic was confirmed by the university of Oxford; and being patronized by Dr Radcliffe, on the death of that famous physician he succeeded him in his house at Bloomsbury-square, and in the greatest part of his business. In 1727 he was made physician to King George II. whom he had also served in that capacity while he was prince of Wales; and he had afterwards the pleasure of seeing his two sons-in-law, Dr Nichols and Dr Wilmot, his coadjutors in that eminent station.

Dr Mead was not more to be admired for the qualities of the head than he was to be loved for those of his heart. Though he was himself a hearty whig, yet, uninfluenced by party principles, he was a friend to all men of merit, by whatever denomination they might happen to be distinguished. Thus he was intimate with Garth, with Arbuthnot, and with Freind; and long kept up a constant correspondence with the great Boerhaave, who had been his fellow student at Leyden: they communicated to each other their observations and projects, and never loved each other less for being of different sentiments. In the mean time, intent as Dr Mead was on the duties of his profession, he had a greatness of mind that extended itself to all kinds of literature, which he spared neither pains nor money to promote. He caused the beautiful and splendid edition of Thuanus's history to be published in 1713, in seven volumes folio: and by his interposition and affluity, Mr Sutton's invention of drawing foul air from ships and other close places was carried into execution, and all the ships in his majesty's navy provided with this useful machine. Nothing pleased him more than to call hidden talents into light; to give encouragement to the greatest projects, and to see them executed under his own eye. During almost half a century he was at the head of his business, which brought him one year above seven thousand pounds, and for several years between five and six thousand; yet clergymen, and in general all men of learning, were welcome to his advice. His library consisted of 10,000 volumes, of which his Latin, Greek, and oriental manuscripts, made no inconsiderable part. He had a gallery for his pictures and antiquities, which cost him great sums. His reputation, not only as a physician, but as a scholar, was so universally established, that he corresponded with all the principal literati in Europe: even the king of Naples sent to desire a complete collection of his works; and in return made him a present of the two first volumes of Signior Bajardi, which may be considered as an introduction to the collection of the antiquities of Herculaneum. At the same time that prince invited him to his palace, that he might have an opportunity of showing him those valuable monuments of antiquity; and nothing but his great age prevented his undertaking a journey so suited to his taste. No foreigner of learning ever came to London without being introduced to Dr Mead; and on these occasions his table was always open, and the magnificence of princes was united with the pleasures of philosophers. It was principally to him that the several counties of England and our colonies abroad applied for the choice of their physicians, and he was likewise consulted by foreign physicians from Russia, Prussia, Denmark, &c. He wrote, besides the above works, 1. A Treatise on the Scurvy. 2. De variolosis et morbillis dissertatio. 3. Medica faecra: foie de Morbis insignioribus, qui in Bibliis memorantur; Commentarius. 4. Monita et Praecepta medica. 5. A Discourse concerning pestilential contagion, and the methods to be used to prevent it. The works he wrote and published in Latin were translated into English, under the Doctor's inspection, by Thomas Stack, M. D. and F. R. S. This great physician, naturalist, and antiquarian, died on the 16th of February 1754.