[5] 



period antecedent to his connection with the Academy; and 

 in conclusion to give, by title at least, some of the special 

 subjects that more recently engaged his ever acute investi- 

 gating and practical mind. 



Dr. Trask was licentiate of Yale College, successfully 

 passing examinations in geology, mineralogy, technical and 

 applied chemistry, proximate and ultimate analysis, micro- 

 scopy, medical botany, surgery, theory and practice of 

 medicine, and cognate sciences, completing the course of 

 lectures required for certificate of the faculty of the college 

 according to the laws of the State of Connecticut. The col- 

 lege subsequently honored him by sending unsolicited the 

 ad eundern degree, brought to him in the year 1859 by John 

 H. Eedington, Esq., then returning from a visit to the East. 

 He was also the subject of honorable recognition by various 

 European and American scientific societies and colleges. 

 Among his foreign diplomas are honorary degrees from 

 Italian and German colleges, awarded for his researches 

 and discoveries in organic chemistry, mineralogy, micro- 

 scopy, and medical botany. He was noted for thorough 

 researches into the action of medicines upon the animal 

 economy — its solids and fluids, whether in their natural 

 state or rendered abnormal by disease. Much time was 

 devoted to investigating the assimilative and nutritive sys- 

 tem, resulting in the discovery of the necessity of presenting 

 fatty substances to the system enfeebled by disease in a 

 form more assimilable than as generally given — e. g., among 

 other discoveries that of combining glucose with animal 

 and vegetable oils, fats, etc., eliciting the important fact 

 that a much less percentage was discoverable in the excreta 

 than in the ordinary form of administration. It was his 

 mastery of chemistry, and especially the materia medica 



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