A Short Discourse Concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Methods To be used to Prevent it.

London:: Sam. Buckley & Ralph Smith, 1720., 1720. First edition. Small 4to. (198 x 123 mm) [8], 59 pp. decorative head- and tail-pieces, and factotum. Modern quarter black cloth over grey boards, gilt-stamped spine title. Contemporary ink ownership inscription on title-page, "Ex Libris Guilielmi Hillary A.D. 1722". Very good. [PZ41] FIRST EDITION. "Mead was asked for advice concerning the plague, and replied with the above tract. It was afterwards expanded into a book and is almost a prophecy of what was to develop as the English public health system. [Garrison & Morton]. "In 1719, in response to the public alarm over the outbreak of plague in Marseilles, the British government asked Mead to prepare a statement concerning the prevention of the disease. Mead's Short discourse anticipated the development of the English public health system in concluding that isolation of the sick in proper places is more effectual in checking the spread of contagion than either general quarantine or fumigation. Mead's book enjoyed a great popularity, going through seven editions within a year of its publication." [Norman]. References: Blake/NLM p.295; BM Readex Vol. 17, p. 94; Cushing M250; Garrison & Morton 5123; Heirs of Hippocrates 769 (3rd ed.); Norman 1476; Osler 3364 (9th ed.); Waller 6394; Wellcome IV, p. 95.