Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1159

NAME THOMAS 1137 THOMAS Dr. Thomas died suddenly of thrombosis of the coronary artery, in Baltimore, November 9, 1S97. Howard A. Kelly. Inform, from Dr. Thomas's family and Dr. Henry M. Hurd. Med. Annals of Md. E. F. Cordell. Baltc, 1903. Thomas, James Grey (1835-1884). James Gray Thomas, pioneer in the pubUc health service in the State of Georgia, was born near Bloomfield, Nelson County, Ken- tucky, June 24, 1835 ; his ancestors were Eng- hsh and Welsh. He attended the Bloomfield High School and the Roman Catholic College (St. Joseph's) at Bardstown, Kentucky, and began the study of medicine at Louisville, then entered the medical department of the Univer- sity of the City of New York, graduating in 1856. He practised in Bloomfield, and then moved near Sardis, Mississippi. While here the Civil War began ; he served in the Con- federate Army throughout the War, was chief surgeon of McLaw's division and medical di- rector of Hardie's Corps. In 1865 he settled in Savannah, Georgia, marrying the same year. From 1875 to 1876 he was in the State Legis- lature, selected as a "judicious and public- spirited medical man who would lead in pro- curing the enactment of laws relating to the interests of hygiene in the State." He was author of the law creating the State Board of Health and requiring the registration of all births, deaths and marriages, and was the first president of the board. For the first time in Georgia, "physicians were recognized as an active and working element in its govern- ment" ; efforts were made to secure vital statistics, to establish local health boards, to prevent the incursions of pestilence, and to "fight against preventable diseases" ; also to establish supervision of State public charities. In 1877 he was elected chairman of a com- mission formed to protect the State from yel- low fever and other diseases, according to an act of the Legislature passed in 1877. Thomas urged the need in Savannah of a citizen's sanitary association to improve public health through the united efforts of private citizens and public methods, and in 1882 he was elected president and served until his death. He was deeply interested in a national board of Iicalth, believing it to be the most effective agency to give the entire country sanitary supervision. His writings include : "The Use of the Ther- mometer in the Practice of Medicine," "The Use of Water in the 'Summer Complaint' of Children," "The Use of Water in Typhoid Fever." He was of commanding appearance, tall and vigorous, with a "benignant and serious" face. On the way to Washington in the interest of the International Medical Congress, to be held in that city in 1887, Thomas was taken il! with pneumonia and died in Washington December 6, 1884. New York Med. Jour., 1885, vol. xli. pp. 222-224. C. R. Agnew. Phys. and Surg, of the U. S. W. B. Atkinson, 1878. Thomas, Joseph (1811-1891). Joseph Thomas, whose name is enshrined in some of our best known books of reference, was a physician as well as distinguished or- ihoepist and learned author, who signed his name with an M. D. on the title page of his works. He was born in Ledyard, Cayuga County, New York, September 23, 1811, son of David Thomas and Harriet Jacobs. He went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1830-1832), but left by reason of ill-health. In 1835 he entered the medical department of the L'niversity of Pennsylvania and graduated in 1837, offering a thesis on "The Pulse." Other titles bestowed were: A. M. (honorary) from Yale University in 1853 ; LL. D. from the University of Pennsylvania, 1872 ; L.L. D. from Princeton University in 1873. Medicine as a profession did not engage him for long, and his time was given to teaching and to literary work. In 1833-34 he taught Latin and Greek, and in 1852-1853 elocution in Haverford College; 1873-1891, he was pro- fessor of English literature in Swarthmore College. In 1857 we find him in India fourteen months studying Sanscrit, Persian and other Oriental languages; he spent three months in Egypt to learn the' rudiments of Arabic. Dr. Thomas was a member of the .'merican Philo- sophical Society. .A.s editor of the first edition of Lippincott's "Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World," he wrote an introduction which gives a masterly exposition of the principles of the pronunciation of geographical names. Other works include : "Travels in Egypt and Pales- tine," "Universal Pronouncing Dictionary of Biography and Mythology." 1870: "Compre- hensive Pronouncing Medical Dictionary," 1886. He contributed geographical vocabu- laries to Webster's dictionaries. Thomas died in Philadelphia, December 24, 1891. He was unmarried. HowARn A. Kelly. Inform, from Dr. Ewing Jordan. Allibone's Diet, of Authors. Appen., 1908. Thomas, Robert Pennell (1821-1864). Robert Pennell Thomas was born in Phila- delphia, May 29, 1821, son of Daniel E. Thomas, merchant, and Sarah E., daughter of Robert Pennell, of Chester Countv, Penn-