14 Biographical Memoir of the late Dr Henry. 



investigation of that important class of maladies, which ajGPect 

 the urinary system, — the exact diagnosis of which is well known 

 to rest on indications purely chemical. His inaugural discourse 

 on uric acid ; his analysis of many varieties of calculi ; and his 

 essay on Diabetes, were favourably received by the profession, 

 and are still cited with approbation by our best pathologists. 

 Even after having relinquished the exercise "^of medicine, he 

 continued to feel a deep interest in its advancement, and on a 

 late occasion when the ravages of Asiatic cholera in neighbour- 

 ing countries suggested the necessity of preventive measures on 

 our own coasts, he established by experiments, as satisfactory 

 perhaps as the nature of the enquiry admitted, the destructibi- 

 lity of various contagious poisons, by degrees of heat inferior 

 to the boiling point of water. It is due, however, to his philo- 

 sophical caution to state, that Dr Henry regarded these expe- 

 riments only as initiatory, and as demanding the confirmation 

 of multiplied and vai'ied trials, before being adopted as the 

 basis of legislative enactments. His feelings of interest had 

 been so deeply excited in the laws and higher physiology of 

 contagion, that he embodied all the facts and evidences he had 

 been able to glean from a most extensive course of reading, in 

 a report which was communicated to the British Association, 

 and has been published in their transactions. 



Dr Henry's compass of thought and interest was not, how- 

 ever, restrained within the limits of his profession and his fa- 

 vourite branch of knowledge. Of the sciences of classification, 

 he had cultivated in early life, with great zeal, both botany and 

 mineralogy ; and had formed a creditable collection of mineral 

 specimens. This latter study naturally led him into the kin- 

 dred pursuit of geology. Indeed, his first academical residence 

 in Edinburgh coincided with the memorable period, when the 

 two rival theories were the objects of constant and eager contro- 

 versy in all societies, and especially in the higher scientific cir- 

 cle, in which Dr Henry had the privilege of moving. Shortly 

 after the formation of the Geological Society of London, Dr 

 Henry was admitted a Fellow ; and though he never aspired 

 to collect by personal research, materials for the advancement 

 of that science, yet he diligently possessed himself of all that 

 was successively made known, and deeply sympathized in its 



