James Thacher, an American physician, born in Barnstable, Mass., Feb. 14, 1754, died in Plymouth, May 26, 1844. On the breaking out of the revolution he was appointed surgeon's mate to Dr. John Warren in the general hospital at Cambridge; in 1778 he was made chief surgeon to the first Virginia state regiment, and in 1779 was transferred to a New England regiment. In March, 1783, he settled as a physician at Plymouth, Mass., where he also gave some attention to the manufacture of salt and iron. He published "The American New Dispensatory" (Boston, 1810), which was long a standard work on pharmacy, medical chemistry, and materia medica; " Observations on Hydrophobia" (1812); "The Modern Practice of Physic" (1817; 2d ed., 1826); "The American Orchardist" (1822; 2d ed., 1825); " A Military Journal during the Revolutionary War" (1823; 3d ed., Hartford, 1854); "American Medical Biography" (2 vols. 8vo, 1828); "A Practical Treatise on the Management of Bees " (1829); "An Essay on Demon-ology, Ghosts, Apparitions, and Popular Superstitions" (1831); and "History of the Town of Plymouth" (1832; 2d ed., 1835).