SKETCH OF PROFESSOR HENRT. 741 



Prof. Tyndall's books are now so widely read that the name is 

 almost a household word where our common language is spoken. 

 We cannot hope that it will be so a hundred years hence ; with the ad- 

 vance of scientific knowledge, the new generations will read new books, 

 and ours be buried or partially hidden in the great ocean of scientific 

 literature. But I look forward in imagination, and see that the man 

 will not be forgotten ; he will be remembered as one who loved and 

 advanced science. This peak will perhaps still more keep his memory 

 green, and the coming generations of school-children conning their 

 lessons in geography, and philosophers studying the grander features 

 of our globe, will learn to pronounce the name of one who loved moun- 

 tains even as he loved science. 



SKETCH OF PROFESSOR HENKY. 



PROF. JOSEPH HENRY, who is widely known throughout the 

 scientific world for his various original investigations, and as 

 the organizer and Permanent Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 is of Scotch descent, and Avas born in Albany, in the State of New 

 York. Having lost his father in early childhood, he was sent at the 

 age of seven years to live with his grandmother, and to attend school 

 at Galway, in Saratoga County, where he remained until he was four- 

 teen. Having accidentally and secretly obtained access to the village 

 library, he became fascinated with books of fiction, and devoted much 

 of his time to reading. Returning to Albany, he was apprenticed to 

 the trade of a jeweller, with which he was occupied two years. He 

 afterward developed a passion for serious study, and became teacher 

 of a country district school. He studied for a time in the Albany 

 Academy, and, through the recommendation of its principal, Dr. T. 

 Romeyn Beck, was appointed private tutor in the family of General 

 Stephen Van Rensselaer, the patroon of Rensselaerwyck. There his . 

 duties occupied him three hours a day, and the rest of his time was 

 spent as an assistant to Dr. Beck, in his chemical investigations ; but 

 he also studied anatomy and physiology, with a view to graduating in 

 medicine. He, however, obtained a position as an engineer to survey 

 a route for a State road from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, through 

 the southern tier of counties. Having finished this arduous and re- 

 sponsible labor, he was elected to fill the vacant chair of Mathematics 

 in the Albany Academy. As the duties did not begin immediately, 

 he spent several months exploring the geology of New York State 

 with Prof. Eaton, of the Rensselaer Institute of Troy. He entered upon 

 his work at the academy in 1826, and then commenced a course of 



