DR. RICHARD MEAD AND HIS REMEDY FOR THE BITE OF A MAD DOG

Abstract

Perhaps the best known English physician of the first half of the eighteenth century was Dr. Richard Mead (1673-1754). His regimen for the treatment of a patient bitten by a mad dog was widely used, not only in England but also in the United States. Dr. Mead's name was so revered that few physicians dared to question the efficacy of his regimen until Dr. James Mease (1771-1846) of Philadelphia who in 1792 wrote that Mead's management of rabid dog bites, cited below, was "totally useless."1 Take Ash coloured Ground Liverwort four drachms, Black Pepper two drachms, mix them together into a fine powder: This is to be divided into four doses, whereof one is to be taken in warm milk in a morning fasting, for four mornings successively; after this the person must be put into a cold bath, pond, or river, for thirty days together, early in the morning, and before breakfast: he is to remain in it with his head above water not longer than half a minute. The wound should be continually fomented with a pickle made with Vinegar and Salt, as warm as it can be borne.2