536 WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. [1878 



OPENING ADDRESS TO THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OP SCIENCES.* 



(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ; vol. i, pp. 131, 132.) 

 Read April 16, 1878. 



Gentlemen: It gives me great pleasure to welcome you 

 to another anniversary meeting of the National Academy of 

 Sciences. We have only to regret that the room we offer for 

 your use is not better adapted for the purpose; but we expect 

 — with considerable confidence, that Congress will make the 

 appropriation for a new museum building which has been 

 asked for; and if that expectation is fulfilled, we can promise 

 you with certainty that an apartment expressly adapted for 

 the purposes of the Academy will be provided. 



During the past year the departments of Government have 

 applied to the Academy for information on two questions 

 relative to the tarifi" on sugar, and to a series of changes pro- 

 posed to be made in the material of the Nautical Almanac. 

 A detailed account of these questions and the answers to 

 them will be given by Prof. Hilgard, the home secretary, in 

 his annual report. 



Another matter, of which a full account will be given you 

 by Prof. Fairman Rogers, the treasurer of the Academy, 

 relates to a fund which has been established by a number of 

 my personal friends, the income of which is to be devoted 

 during the lives of myself and family toward our mainte- 

 nance, and afterward, as in the case of the A. Dallas Bache 

 fund, under the direction of the Academy, to the advance of 

 physical science. 



This entirely unexpected token of affectionate regard was 

 made at a time when it was doubly grateful. After an al- 

 most uninterrupted period of excellent health for fifty years 

 I awoke on the 5th of December, [1877,] at my office in the 

 Light-House depot on Staten Island, finding my right hand 



* [Address by the president of the National Academy of Sciences, at the 

 opening of its session held in "Washington April 16-19, 1878 ; read by the 

 home secretary of the Academy.] 



