HENEY AS A DISCOVERER* 



BY 



ALFRED M. MAYER. 



AT the meeting of this Association in 1878 a committee, com- 

 posed of Professors Baird, Newcomb, and myself, was appointed to 

 prepare a eulogy on our revered and lamented colleague and former 

 President, Joseph Henry. 



This, I will not say labor, but duty of affection, has devolved 

 on me alone. I would that the other members of this committee 

 had laid before you their tributes to his memory, because for years 

 they had been closely associated with him in his social and profes- 

 sional life in Washington. Yet, while Professor Henry had been 

 the friend of their manhood he was the friend of my boyhood; 

 and during 25 years he ever regarded me as was his wont to say 

 with "a paternal interest." To his disinterested kindness and 

 wise counsels is due much, very much, of whatever usefulness there 

 is in me. Hence, I have said that it is a duty of affection for me 

 to speak to you about one who was my beloved friend. 



I shall not however attempt a biography of Joseph Henry, nor 

 will I speak of his administrative life as Director of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, for this is known and valued by the whole world. 

 His best eulogy is an account of his discoveries; for a man of 

 science, as such, lives in what he has done, and not in what he has 

 said; nor will he be remembered in what he proposed to do. I 

 will therefore with your permission, confine myself chiefly to 

 HENRY as the Discoverer; and I do this the more willingly because 

 I am familiar with his researches, and also because Professor Henry, 

 from time to time, took pleasure in giving me accounts of those 

 mental conceptions which preceded his work, led him to it, and 

 guided him in it. 



* A Memorial Address read before the Meeting of the American Association at 

 Boston, August 26, 1880. 



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