280 JOSEPH HENRY, LL.D. 



enter the Albany Academy. When more money 

 was needed, the enterprising youth found a situa- 

 tion as head of a district school, at eight dollars a 

 month! He pleased his patrons so well that he 

 received fifteen dollars for the second month. 

 Later, he became an assistant in the academy, 

 while still a pupil. 



Says Orlando Meads, LL.D. : " When a boy in 

 the Albany Academy in 1823 and 1824, it was my 

 pleasure and privilege, when released from recita- 

 tions, to resort to the chemical laboratory and lec- 

 ture room. There might be found from day to day 

 through the winter, earnestly engaged in experi- 

 ments upon steam and upon a small steam-engine, 

 and in chemical and other scientific investigations, 

 two young men both active members of the 

 1 Lyceum/ then very different in their external 

 circumstances and prospects in life, but of kindred 

 tastes and sympathies ; the one was Eichard Var- 

 ick De Witt, 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 inter- 

 est, 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 fashion- 

 able in the city. Henry . . . was then Dr. Beck's 

 chemical assistant, and already an admirable ex- 



