144 



NATURE 



\yune6, 1878 



of Faraday, Wheatstone, Bailey, and other eminent 

 physicists, discussing with Wheatstone their projects for 

 an electric telegraph. He returned to his lectures with 

 the zest and vigour acquired by this exchange of views 

 with men of like pursuits with himself, and held his place 

 as the foremost of American scientific teachers until 1846, 

 when he was called to an entirely different sphere of 

 activity. 



Ten years before Congress had accepted, by a solemn 

 act, the curious bequest of James Smithson, made to the 

 United States in trust, "to found at Washington an 

 establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 among men." The will gave no indications whatever as 

 to the details of the proposed establishment, and long 

 consideration was therefore necessary before the Govern- 

 ment could decide upon its organisation. It was not 

 until 1846 that a definite plan of organisation was estab- 

 lished by law. When this was done Prof. Henry was at 

 once looked upon as pre-eminently the man to be the 

 principal executive officer of the institution. He accepted 

 the position with " reluctance, fear, and trembling," upon 

 the urgent solicitation of Prof. Bache. From the be- 

 ginning two different views of the proper direction in 

 which the energies of the establishment should be devoted 

 have been entertained. There was a scientific party, 

 which held that the operations of the establishment 

 should be confined strictly within the limits prescribed 

 by the donor, and in the sense in which he himself, as a 

 scientific investigator, would naturally have construed his 

 own words— in fact, that it should be entirely an institu- 

 tion for scientific research and publication. Another 

 party was desirous of giving it a larger scope and wider 

 range, including literature and art as well as science. 

 The new secretary, of course, sympathised entirely with 

 the scientific party, who considered most of the objects 

 proposed by the other party as foreign to the proper 

 purpose of the institution, and the expenditure of money 

 upon them as contrary to the expressed intention of 

 the donor. The whple policy of Henry was directed 

 towards diminishing, as far as possible, the expen- 

 diture of the Smithsonian fund upon the library, the 

 building, the museum, and art-gallery, by having these 

 several objects provided for in other ways. He got 

 the library removed to the Capitol and deposited in the 

 Library of Congress, and the art-gallery superseded by 

 the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The impropriety of charging 

 the Smithsonian fund with the support of the govern- 

 mental collections was so obvious that Congress has for 

 several years provided for the maintenance of the 

 National Museum, as it has now become, in connection 

 with the institution. He aimed at a complete separation 

 of the museum from the institution; the Government 

 leasing the building for the use of the former, while the 

 latter should find more modest and appropriate but less 

 expensive quarters. This project, however, he did not 

 live to carry out. 



Henry was, of course, the authority most frequently 

 and regularly consulted by the Government on all ques- 

 tions which arose involving applications of science or of 

 scientific principles. His greatest services to the Govern- 

 ment were rendered as a member of the Light-House 

 Board, a position which he held from the time the Board 

 was organised. His principal duties were at first to 

 mquire into the various methods of illumination and 

 especially to test the oils proposed for this purpose. Of 

 late years he began to investigate the subject of fog- 

 signals, which led to a very extended series of experi- 

 mental researches on the causes which influence the 

 propagation of sound through the air, and which some- 

 times render It inaudible at comparatively short distances 



innr?=^J'!^'''\^^^f '?/^ '^°'^^>^ pubHshed in the annual 

 reports of the Light-House Board. 



weather rennrlf"^- '^^ '^^^^'^V^ ^r communicating the 

 weathei reports originated with Professor Henry, and 



was put in operation at the Institution at an early period 

 of his connection with it. 



It was while engaged in the discharge of certain experi- 

 mental work on Staaten Island last December, connected 

 with the photometric laboratory of the Light- House 

 Board, that he experienced a partial paralysis, which 

 yielded soon to treatment, but was doubtless the precur- 

 sor of the nephritic attack to which he succumbed. In 

 April he presided at the opening meeting of the session 

 of the National Academy of Sciences, held in the rooms 

 of the Secretary of the Smithsonian, and submitted an 

 address to his associates, read by the Home Secretary, 

 recounting with touching simplicity his recent decline of 

 power, and expressing his desire to be relieved from the 

 cares of the office of President. As a mark of affection- 

 ate respect, the Academy unanimously requested him to 

 retain this post during his life— leaving the duties to be 

 discharged by the Vice-President. It was on this occa- 

 sion that the announcement was made to the Academy, 

 by Prof. Henry, and, subsequently, in fuller details, 

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

 of an endowment to be called " the Joseph Henry Fund." 

 This fund consists of forty thousand dollars, securely 

 invested, the income of which is for the support of Prof. 

 Henry and that of his family, during the life of the latest 

 survivor. Afterwards the fund is to be transferred, in 

 trust, to the National Academy of Sciences, the income 

 to be for ever devotedjto scientific research. No more 

 graceful and well-merited tribute of respect and affection 

 Avas ever bestowed upon a man of science by the spon- 

 taneous offerings of personal friends and associates. Alas ! 

 that its honoured object should have remained so brief a 

 time to enjoy the peace and satisfaction of this gracious 

 endowment. If it is true that republics are ungrateful, it 

 is pleasant to know that the absence of imperial and 

 kingly patronage may be compensated by a sovereignty 

 not less potent. 



The whole course of Prof. Henry was marked by an 

 elevation of character entirely in keeping with his intel- 

 lectual force. Placed in a position where the temptation 

 to lend the use of his name to commercial enterprises was 

 incessant, he so studiously avoided every appearance of 

 evil that the shadow of suspicion never rested upon him. 

 His services to the Government in many capacities, espe- 

 cially in that of member of the Light-House Board, where 

 his experiments saved it hundreds of thousands of dollars, 

 were entirely gratuitous. His salary was paid from the 

 Smithsonian bequest, and he never asked the Government 

 for a dollar on account of his services. An elevated but 

 genial humour, a delicate poetic taste, a memory replete 

 with anecdote, a refined intellectual face, and an impressive 

 bearing made him one of the most valued members of the 

 intellectual society of Washington. 



Prof. Henry leaves a wife and three unmarried 

 daughters, who have been assiduous helpers in the scien- 

 tific work of their father, making good to a degree the 

 loss of an only son, whose death in early manhood was 

 a sad disappointment of parental hopes and youthful 

 promise. 



Prof. Henry was buried May 16, in the Rock Creek 

 Cemetery, near Georgetown, D.C. The President of the 

 United States, the cabinet officers, diplomatic corps, and 

 members of Congress and of the National Academy, were 

 among the mourners. 



Prof. Spencer F. Baird, long the Assistant-Secretary to 

 the Smithsonian Institution, was, on May 17, unanimously 

 elected by the Board of Regents as Prof. Henry's suc- 

 cessor in the office of Secretary of that institution. No 

 more acceptable appointment could have been made. 



_ We express our indebtedness to Prof. Silliman, who has 

 kindly forwarded us early sheets of an article on Prof. 

 Henry to appear in the American Jotirnal of Science and 

 Arts. From this, together with an article in the New 

 York Nation, we have gathered most of the above details 

 of Prof. Henry's life and work. 



