1819.] the late Mr. Thomas Heunj. 173 



though he did not embark in new experimental inquiries, yet he 

 continued for many years to feel a warm interest in the advance- 

 ment of science ; and to maintain an occasional correspondence 

 with persons highly eminent for their rank as philosophers, both 

 in this and other countries.* His medical avocations had greatly 

 increased, and for a further interval of 15 or 20 years, he had a 

 share of professional employment which occupied by much the 

 greater portion of his time. This, and the superintendence of 

 some chemical concerns, prevented him from attempting more 

 than to keep pace with the progress of knowledge. He was in 

 no haste, however, to claim that exemption from active labour to 

 which advanced age is fairly entitled ; and it was not till a very 

 few vears before his death that he retired from the exercise of 

 the medical profession. 



The summers of the years 1814 and 1815 were spent by Mr. 

 Henry in the country, a mode of life, which, now that his season 

 of active exertion was passed, was peculiarly suited to him, not 

 only by the tranquil retirement which it afforded, but by its 

 enabling him to indulge that sensibility to the charms of rural 

 scenery, which, perhaps, can exist in perfection only in a pure 

 and virtuous mind. His perception of these pleasures was at no 

 period more lively than after he had entered his 81st year. In 

 a note addressed to the writer of these pages, in the autumn of 

 1815, he describes, in animated language, one of those events 

 which so agreeably diversify the face of nature in the country. 

 " Yesterday," he says, " we had one of the most beautiful 

 appearances in the garden I ever witnessed. Every leaf, every 

 petal, every projecting fibre, was beset with a minute globule of 

 water ; and when the sun shone upon the flowers and shrubs, 

 they seemed as if studded with myriads of brilliants. The 

 gossamer too with which the hedges were covered was adorned 

 with the same splendent appendages. The cause," he adds, 

 " of this deposition of moisture must, I suppose, have been 

 electrical." 



The winter of the year 1815, which Mr. Henry passed in 

 Manchester, was a season of greater suffering than was usual to 

 him ; for though of a delicate constitution, yet he happily, even 

 at this advanced time of life, enjoyed an almost entire exemption 

 from painful diseases. During this winter, he was much 

 distressed by cough and difficult breathing, and his bodily 

 strength rapidly declined. In the spring of the following year, 

 he returned into the country, but not to the enjoyments which 

 he had before derived from it. He was unable to take his 



* A ( oiisiderable collection of letters to Mr. Henry from persons of this descrip- 

 tion has been preserved ; lint the subjects of them have for tin' most pait been long 

 ago brought before the public by their respective writers. The letters are, there- 

 fore, chiefly valuable to the family of the deceased, as unequivocal proofs of the 

 respect and esteem felt towards him by those who were best qualified to judge of 

 his merits. Many of themare from learned foreigners, with whom he had tnjo\ed 

 bpportunitiea of personal intercourse during their visits to Manchester. 



G 



