BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR:* 



BY 



PROF. SIMON NEWCOMB. 



IN presenting to the Academy the following notice of its late 

 lamented President the writer feels that an apology is due for the 

 imperfect manner in which he has been obliged to perform the duty 

 assigned him. The very richness of the material has been a source 

 of embarrassment. Few have any conception of the breadth of 

 the field occupied by Professor HENRY'S researches, or of the num- 

 ber of scientific enterprises of which he was either the originator or 

 the effective supporter. What, under the circumstances, could be 

 said within a brief space to show what the world owes to him has 

 already been so well said by others that it would be impracticable to 

 make a really new presentation without writing a volume. The 

 Philosophical Society of this city has issued two notices which 

 together cover almost the whole ground that the writer feels com- 

 petent to occupy. The one is a personal biography the affection- 

 ate and eloquent tribute of an old and attached friend; the other 

 an exhaustive analysis of his scientific labors by an honored member 

 of the society well known for his philosophic acumen. The Re- 

 gents of the Smithsonian Institution made known their indebted- 

 ness to his administration in the Memorial Services held in his honor 

 in the Halls of Congress. 



Under these circumstances the only practicable course has seemed 

 to be to give a condensed reswm of Professor HENRY'S life and 

 works, by which any small occasional gaps in previous notices might 

 be filled. That in doing this the writer may repeat much that has 

 already been better said by others is a fault which he hopes the 

 Academy will pardon in view of the difficulty of avoiding it. 



*An Address read before the "National Academy of Sciences," April 21, 1880. 



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