DISCOURSE OF DR. J. C. WELLING. 11 



li-n. very. Leaving the record of his particular achievements at 

 this epoch to be told by Mr. Taylor, who is so well qualified to 

 do them justice, I beg leave only to refer to this period in the 

 career of Professor Henry as that in which it was my good for- 

 tune to come, for the first time, under the personal influence of the 

 great philosophical scholar, who, after being my teacher in science 

 during the days of my college novitiate at Princeton, continued 

 during the whole of his subsequent life to honor me with a friend- 

 ship which was as much my support in every emergency that called 

 for counsel and guidance as it was at all times my joy and the 

 'rown of my rejoicing. 



In the year 1847, when Professor Henry was in the forty-eighth 

 year of his age, he was unanimously elected by the Regents of the 

 Smithsonian Institution as its Secretary, or Director. At that time 

 the institution existed only in name, under the organic act passed by 

 Congress for its incorporation, in order to give effect to the bequest 

 of James Smithson, Esq., of London, who by his last will and 

 testament had given the whole of his property to the United States 

 to found at Washington, under the name of the "Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution/' an establishment for "the increase and diffusion of knowl- 

 edge among men." It does not need to be said that Professor 

 Henry did not seek this appointment. It came to him unsolicited, 

 but it came to him from the Board of Regents not only by the free 

 choice of its members, but also at the suggestion and with the 

 approval of European men of science, like Sir David Brewster, 

 Faraday, and Arago, as also of American scientific men, like Bache 

 and Silliman and Hare. I well remember to have heard the late 

 George M. Dallas (a member of the constituent Board of Regents 

 by virtue of his office as Vice-President of the United States) 

 make the remark on a public occasion, immediately after the elec- 

 tion of Professor Henry as Director of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 that the Board had not had the slightest hesitation in tendering 

 the appointment to him "as being peerless among the recognized 

 heads of American science.' 7 



At the invitation of the Regents he drew up an outline plan of 

 the Institution, and the plan was adopted by them on the 1 3th of 



