468 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



relinquished to others each field of investigation at the very time 

 when he had it so far cultivated as to yield most fame and profit 

 to himself. It is an unfortunate fact that the world, in awarding 

 its laurels, is prone to overlook the sometimes long list of those 

 whose labors have rendered a result possible, and to remember only 

 the one who gave the finishing stroke, or applied previously known 

 principles to some useful result. There are few investigators to 

 whom the criterion in question would do less justice than to the 

 subject of our notice. In his unselfish devotion to knowledge 

 he sowed that others might reap on the broad humanitarian 

 ground that a valuable harvest would be sure to find a reaper 

 while the seed might wait in vain for a sower. Had this been 

 done solely in his individual character we should have looked 

 upon his course with admiration ; but in bringing the principle into 

 the administration of the Smithsonian Institution he avoided a 

 danger and rendered a benefit for which we cannot be too grateful. 

 To this principle is due the fact that the Institution never appeared 

 as a competitor, seeking an advantage for itself, but always as the 

 active co-operator in every enterprise tending to carry out the object 

 prescribed by its founder. 



Notwithstanding a uniform adherence to this course through his 

 whole life it would be difficult to find a physicist of our time whose 

 researches cover more ground than his do. Any adequate analysis 

 of his published papers and notices would have transcended the limits 

 of the present memoir. Besides his electrical researches, they include 

 meteorology in Almost all its phases, the physical geography of his 

 native State, terrestrial magnetism, capillarity, molecular physics, 

 observations of meteors, phosphorescence, solar physics, protection 

 from lightning, observations of the aurora, the radiation of heat, 

 the strength of building materials, experiments on an alleged spon- 

 taneous separation of alcohol and water, aeronautics, the ventilation 

 of buildings, the phenomena of sound, and various other subjects 

 hardly admitting of classification. 



Notwithstanding his literary productiveness, he rarely if ever 

 wrote a paper to yield him the honorarium of a magazine contrib- 

 utor. Nor did he ever seek a source of income beyond the modest 

 salary paid him for administering the Smithsonian Institution. 



