MINUTES  OP  THE  COLLEGE. 
279 
the  College,  who  came  in  contact  with  him  at  its  meetings  and  elsewhere, 
he  attached  himself  closely  in  relations  of  confidence  and  friendship. 
In  the  investigation  and  illustration  of  his  subject,  Dr.  Thomas  was  in- 
defatigable, and  while  he  added  to  his  own  cabinet,  he  enriched  also  that 
belonging  to  the  College.  The  first  literary  labor  of  Dr.  Thomas,  after 
entering  upon  the  practice  of  medicine,  was  the  translation  from  the  French 
of  the  first  edition  of  Caseux's  Midwifery,  a  work  which  has  since  gone 
through  three  editions,  and  become  a  standard  treatise  on  that  subject. 
His  writings,  published  in  The  Journal  of  Pharmacy,  in  the  proceedings  of 
the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  and  elsewhere,  evince  close 
observations  and  analysis,  and  are  written  with  clearness  and  perspicuity. 
Of  these  we  may  specify  his  paper  on  Texas  Sarsaparilla,  published  in 
our  Journal  in  1855,  showing  that  this  drug  is  not  identical  with  the  true 
Sarsaparillas  ;  his  paper  on  Garlic,  published  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association  for  1860,  describing  a  variety  of 
this  drug  found  in  the  Philadelphia  Market,  and  which  he  concludes  is 
not  a  distinct  species,  but  a  hybrid,  partaking  of  the  nature  of  the  garlic 
and  of  the  leek ;  and  a  short  essay  on  the  Culture  of  Elaterium,  in  the 
Volume  of  Proceedings  for  1862, — all  exhibiting  evidences  of  his  talent 
and  industry  in  the  special  department  of  Pharmacology. 
Some  interesting  experiments  on  the  influence  of  morphia  in  the  color- 
test  for  strychnia,  detailed  in  a  paper  published  in  the  American  Journal 
of  Medical  Sciences,  were  exhibited  by  him  at  one  of  the  Pharmaceutical 
Meetings  of  this  College  in  1861.  The  presence  of  morphia  was  shown  to 
modify  the  color-test  for  strychnia,  as  first  ascertained  by  Dr.  J.  J.  Reese, 
so  as  to  render  it  quite  unreliable  for  medico-legal  investigations,  as  usually 
applied,'  and  the  admirable  expedient  suggested  of  isolating  the  strychnia 
from  the  morphia,  where  they  are  associated,  by  the  use  of  chloroform  in 
the  presence  of  an  excess  of  caustic  potassa,  thus  avoiding  the  interference 
in  cases  requiring  the  test. 
The  most  extensive  editorial  labors  of  Dr.  Thomas  were  connected  with 
the  revision  of  Griffith's  Universal  Formulary  and  Ellis'  Medical  Formulary. 
Both  these  works  were  originally  edited  by  Professors  of  this  College — the 
former,  by  Dr.  R.  Egglesfield  Griffith,  appeared  in  1850,  some  years  after  he 
had  left  this  institution,  and  was  re-edited  by  Dr.  Thomas  in  1854,  who 
enlarged  it  by  the  addition  of  70  pages  of  new  matter,  and  improved  it  by 
original  modifications. 
Ellis'  Formulary  had  passed  through  nine  revisions  before  Dr.  Thomas  be- 
came its  editor  ;  he  twice  revised  it,  and  it  was  the  last  literary  effort  on 
which  he  was  engaged,  the  eleventh  edition  having  been  published  but  a  few 
weeks  before  his  death.  In  this  work,  which  taxed  his  powers  during 
the  past  winter,  there  is  much  to  remind  us  of  his  mental  traits,  and  a 
degree  of  completeness  and  accuracy  which  gives  it  value  as  a  standard 
work  of  its  kind. 
