lssn.j 4 UO [Rogers. 



which Prof. Henry in common with Baclie and Agassiz, exercised is gone 

 with them, and must perhaps now be concentrated in Academies and So- 

 cieties. 



Prof. Henry's closest connection with the American Philosophical Soci- 

 ety was during his residence at Princeton, from the year 1832 to 1846, during 

 which period he made constant communications to the Society, and attended 

 its meetings regularly, forming and cementing those friendships with many 

 Philadelphians which lasted through his life. This was the time of his 

 greatest activity in original work, and as Faraday, in England, Biot and 

 Becquerel, in France, and Riess, in Germany, were engaged in parallel 

 investigations of the greatest importance, the period was one of the most 

 interesting in the annals of science. 



Upon his election, in 1846, as head of the Smithsonian Institution, his 

 opportunities for direct private investigation in his own laboratory ceased, 

 but he had improved facilities for controlling extensive investigations 

 through correspondents, which added largely to scientific knowledge, and 

 some of his later personal researches, such as those relating to lighthouse 

 oils and to sound signals, were of the greatest importance. 



Elected President of the National Academy of Sciences, in 1868, after 

 the death of its first President, Prof. Bache, he exercised in its affairs the 

 same strong, sensible, quiet influence that characterized his usual action, 

 and his last formal connection with it, only a few weeks before his death, 

 was marked by two incidents, in themselves of much interest. 



His waning powers and several sharp attacks of illness had warned him 

 that his life was drawing towards its close, and one of his intimate friends, 

 with whom he sometimes took counsel about his family affairs, found that 

 he was troubled by the fear that his family might suffer from straightened 

 circumstances after his death. Without giving him the least intimation of 

 what was intended, a fund of forty thousand dollars, in one thousand dol- 

 lar subscriptions, was quickly made up among his friends and admirers in 

 several Eastern cities, principally in Philadelphia, and placed in trust for 

 the benefit of his wife and children during their lives, with the proviso 

 that after their death it should go to the National Academy of Sciences, 

 and form "The Joseph Henry Fund," the interest to be applied to assist- 

 ing investigators in original research. 



Nothing could have been more pleasant than the way in which Prof. 

 Henry took this compliment. He appreciated exactly the spirit in which 

 the movement was made, and said that the only source of trouble in his 

 mind was now removed. He frequently referred to it, and enjoyed draw- 

 ing a parallel between his life and that of his intimate friend, Bache, re- 

 marking that they had worked together, had occupied high scientific po- 

 sitions under government together, had both been Presidents of the 

 Academy, and that now the chain would be unbroken, for he would leave 

 behind him, in the hands of that Academy "The Joseph Henry Fund," 

 as Bache had left "The Bache Fund." 



The presentation of this fund to the Academy formed a conspicuous part 



