SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 



Note A. {From p. W9.) 

 henry's first experiments. 



From the time of leaving the Albany Academy young Henry 

 exhibited a great fondness for chemical experimentation. The 

 wonderful transformations of familiar substances under the magic 

 spell of decomposing re-actions and combining affinities, seemed to 

 his ardent imagiuatiou to offer a possible clue to the mystery of 

 matter and of force. His mental activity sought an outlet in assist- 

 ing to establish the " Albany Lyceum." 



Orlando Meads, LL.D. in the "Annual Address" read before 

 the Albany Institute, May 25, 1871, thus records his early reminis- 

 cences : 



"When a boy in the Albany Academy in 1823 and 1824, it was 

 my pleasure and privilege, when released from recitations, to resort 

 to the chemical laboratory and lecture room. There might be 

 found from day to day through the winter, earnestly engaged in 

 experiments upon steam and vipon a small steam-engine, and in 

 chemical and other scientific investigations, two young men — both 

 active members of the ' Lyceum,' then very different in their exter- 

 nal circumstances and prospects in life, but of kindred tastes and 

 sympathies; the one was Richard Varick DeWitt, the other was 

 Joseph Henry, as yet unknown to fame, but already giving promise 

 of those rare qualities of mind and character which have since raised 

 him to the very first rank among the experimental philosophers of 

 his time. Chemistry at that time was exciting great interest, and 

 Dr. Beck's courses of chemical lectures, conducted every winter in 

 the lecture room of the Academy, were attended not only by the 

 students, but by all that was most intelligent and fashionable in the 

 city. Henry, who had been formerly a pupil in the Academy, was 

 then Dr. Beck's chemical assistant, and already an admirable ex- 

 perimentalist, and he availed himself to the utmost of the advan- 

 tages thus afforded, of prosecuting his investigations in chemistry, 

 electricity, and galvanism." * 



* Transactions of Albany Institute, 1872, vol. vii. pp. 20, 21. 



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