diff --git a/Cantera/matlab/cantera/@ThermoPhase/speciesIndex.m b/Cantera/matlab/cantera/@ThermoPhase/speciesIndex.m
index 016618fb2..ddea97d1e 100644
--- a/Cantera/matlab/cantera/@ThermoPhase/speciesIndex.m
+++ b/Cantera/matlab/cantera/@ThermoPhase/speciesIndex.m
@@ -1,9 +1,14 @@
-function n = speciesIndex(a,name)
+function k = speciesIndex(a,name)
 % SPECIESINDEX -  The species index of species with name 'name'. 
 %
 %   The index is an integer assigned to each species in sequence as it
 %   is read in from the input file.
 %
+%   If name is a single string, the return value will be a integer
+%   containing the corresponding index. If it is an cell array of
+%   strings, the output will be an array of the same shape
+%   containing the indices.
+%
 %   NOTE: In keeping with the conventions used by Matlab, this method
 %   returns 1 for the first species, 2 for the second, etc. In
 %   contrast, the corresponding method speciesIndex in the Cantera C++
@@ -13,4 +18,15 @@ function n = speciesIndex(a,name)
 %      ich4 = speciesIndex(gas, 'CH4');
 %      iho2 = speciesIndex(gas, 'HO2');
 %
-n = phase_get(a.tp_id,12,name);
\ No newline at end of file
+
+if iscell(name)
+  [m, n] = size(name);
+  k = zeros(m,n);
+  for i = 1:m
+    for j = 1:n
+      k(i,j) = phase_get(a.tp_id,12,name{i,j});
+    end
+  end
+else
+  k = phase_get(a.tp_id,12,name);
+end
\ No newline at end of file