THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 

 PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 



Biographical Memoir of the late William Henry, M.D., F.R.S. 

 and G. S. Vice-President of the Literary and Philosophical 

 and Natural History Societies of Manchester, (§-c. By W il- 

 LiAM Charles Henry, M, D., F. R. S., & G. S. 



The late Dr Henry was born in Manchester, on the 12th of 

 December 1774. His earlier years were passed amid influences 

 propitious to the nurture of those tastes for which he was after- 

 wards distinguished. His father, Mr Thomas Henry, F.R.S., 

 formerly president of this society, was a zealous cultivator of 

 chemical science, to which he devoted all the leisure moments 

 of a life actively engaged in medical practice, with a persever- 

 ance and success that have been affectionately commemorated 

 by his son.-f- The earliest impressions of Dr Henry's childhood 

 were, therefore, such as to inspire interest and reverence for the 

 pursuits of science ; and he is said, when very young, to have 

 sought amusement in attempting to imitate, with such means 

 as were at his disposal, the chemical experiments which his fa- 

 ther had been performing. A severe accident, which befel him 

 in early life, by disqualifying him for the active sports of boy- 

 hood, must also have contributed to determine his taste for 

 books and sedentary occupations. This injury, occasioned by 

 the fall of a heavy beam upon his right side, was so serious as 



• Read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester. 

 t Manchester Memoirs. 2d Series, vol. iii. 



n'oL. XXIV. no. XI.VIl. JANUARY 1838. A 



