JOSEPH HENRY, LL.D. 281 



perimentalist, and he availed himself to the utmost 

 of the advantages thus afforded of prosecuting his 

 investigations in chemistry, electricity, and galva- 

 nism." Dr. T. Eomeyn Beck, the principal, had 

 become interested in the studious young man, and, 

 when he left the academy, recommended him to 

 one of the trustees, General Stephen Van Rensse- 

 laer, as a private tutor to his sons. Young Henry's 

 services were engaged, and, as his teaching required 

 but about three hours each day, he devoted his 

 leisure to higher mathematics, in conjunction with 

 chemistry, physiology, and anatomy, as he had 

 decided to become a physician. In his mathemati- 

 cal studies he went so far as to read the Mecanique 

 Analytique of La Grange. 



His delicate constitution seemed unable to bear 

 the continued strain of study and teaching, and at 

 twenty-six, through the friendship of an influential 

 judge, Henry received the appointment of engineer 

 in the survey of a road between the Hudson River 

 and Lake Erie, a distance of about three hundred 

 miles. This gave him out-of-door life, which he 

 needed, and, though much of his work was done in 

 winter, in deep snow, making his way through 

 dense forests, he entirely regained his health, and 

 gave such excellent satisfaction that he was asked 

 to construct a canal in Ohio, and assist in a min- 

 ing enterprise in Mexico. Both of these he re- 

 fused, accepting the chair of Mathematics and 

 Natural Philosophy in the Albany Academy, at the 

 urgent solicitation of his friend, Dr. Beck. 



