Richard Mead (1673-1754) was an English physician. His Mechanical Account of Poisons appeared in 1702, and, in 1703, he was admitted to the Royal Society. Mead got involved in the creation of a new charity, the Foundling Hospital, both as a founding governor and as an advisor on all things medical. The Foundling Hospital was a home for abandoned children rather than a medical hospital. Published in 1720, his work, A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it, was of historic importance in the understanding of transmissible diseases. In 1755 Mead published "Medica Sacra; Or, A commentary on the most remarkable diseases, mentioned in the Holy Scriptures". Mead understood those afflicted by demons in the New Testament to refer simply to those suffering from a variety of illnesses. He died in his home in 1754. He was 80 years old.