MEMOEIAL MINUTE: 



BY 



ORLANDO MEADS. 



Professor JOSEPH HENRY, LL.D., who for more than half a 

 century has stood at the head of American scientific men, and who 

 for more than thirty years has held, with equal honor to himself 

 and advantage to the great interests committed to him, the eminent 

 position of Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, died at his 

 post of duty in the city of Washington, on the 13th day of May, 

 1878, in the eighty-fiist year of his age. The death of one so 

 venerable in years, and whose long life has been devoted so assidu- 

 ously and successfully to the advancement of science in some of its 

 highest departments, makes it especially fitting that the members of 

 this Institute, of which he was one of the founders, should place 

 upon its records some suitable expression of their estimate of his 

 character and services. 



It is with just pride that we call to mind that he was a native 

 of this city ; that it was here in the Albany Academy, and in the 

 very building in which we are now assembled, that he received 

 much of his early education, and especially in those branches which 

 contributed most to prepare him for his subsequent scientific career ; 

 that after ceasing to be a pupil in the academy, much of his leisure 

 time, for several years, was spent in the laboratory, then in this very 

 room, in experimental investigations in chemistry, electricity, in the 

 application of steam, and in other branches of physical science, in 

 which he was destined afterwards to attain so great distinction. 

 While thus engaged, he took an active part in the organization of 

 the Albany Lyceum, and afterward of the Albany Institute. In 

 1826, he was appointed professor of mathematics and natural 

 philosophy in the academy. The place was not unworthy of the 

 high qualifications he brought to it; for in that day few of the 

 colleges of this country afforded such a large and thorough course 

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