48 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



best interests of the Academj'. How zealously he guarded its good name; how 

 impartially and wisely he guided its deliberations; and how earnestly he strove 

 to maintain for it a high standard in Science, we can all bear ample testimony." -^ 



Shortly before his death, in 1878, a number of personal friends 

 established a fund " as an expression of the donors' respect and 

 esteem for Professor Joseph Henry's personal virtues, their 

 sense of his life's great devotion to science with its results of im- 

 portant discoveries, and of his constant labors to increase and 

 diffuse knowledge and promote the welfare of mankind." This 

 fund, which amounted to $40,000, was deposited with a trust 

 company, with the provision that the income derived from it 

 should be paid over to Professor Henry during his lifetime, and 

 afterward to his wife and daughters; and that after the death 

 of the last survivor it should be delivered to the Academy " to 

 be thenceforward forever held in trust under the name and title of 

 the ' Joseph Henry Fund,' the principal to be forever held intact, 

 and the income to be from time to time applied by the said 

 National Academy of Sciences in its sole discretion to assist 

 meritorious investigators, especially in the direction of original 

 research." 



On June 30, 1878, Congress passed an act requiring the 

 Academy to consider the methods and expenditures of the 

 several surveys carried on under Government auspices, and to 

 report a plan for conducting them to the best advantage as re- 

 gards cost and results, and for the publication and distribution 

 of reports, maps, etc. The views of the Academy on this sub- 

 ject, which was one of much importance, will be considered in 

 the chapter devoted to the work of the Academy as the scientific 

 adviser of the Government. 



After the death of Professor Henry, the Vice-President, 

 Professor Marsh, w^s Acting President until April, 1879, when 

 Professor Wm. B. Rogers was elected President. The term of 

 office under the constitution was six years, but Professor Rogers 

 died in May, 1882, and Professor Marsh again became Acting 

 President until April, 1883, when Professor Wolcott Gibbs 



"' Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. i, p. 149. 



