32 PROCEEDINGS OP REGENTS. 



The Chancellor appointed Messrs. Gray, Parker, and Baird 

 as the committee. 



The Chancellor then stated that any remarks the Regents desired 

 to make in relation to Professor Henby were in order. 



Dr. Parker addressed the Board as follows : 



Mr. Chancellor and Fellow-Regents: We are making 

 history, and I wish to say a few words that shall remain upon its 

 page, in memory of Joseph Henry, our beloved and lamented 

 friend and Secretary, when we, like him, shall have passed from 

 earth. Many have already pronounced his eulogy and set forth his 

 rare talents and influence upon the world, and I need not, and 

 could not, were 1 to attempt it, add to your appreciation of 

 Professor Henry, his life and character, as a friend, scientist, and 

 christian, the highest type of man. 



For twenty years I have been intimately acquainted with Pro- 

 fessor Henry, and happily associated with him in many ways; for 

 ten years as a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and as a 

 member of the Executive Committee, during all that period our 

 intercourse has been frequent and intimate. I have never hnovm a 

 more excellent man. 



His memory has been much on my mind since he left us, and I 

 often find myself inquiring how he and others like him are occupied 

 now. His connection with time is severed, but his existence con- 

 tinues. When I recall the names of Professors Franklin Bache, 

 Charles G. Page, Louis Agassiz, and Joseph Henry, and 

 others of similar intellect and virtue, I find myself asking the 

 question, Are to them all consciousness and thought suspended by 

 separation from the body? I am reluctant to come to such conclu- 

 sion. But this I know, the Infinite Father's ways are right. 



It seems most providential that Professor Henry had the oppor- 

 tunity and the strength to give in person his last words, a priceless 

 legacy, to the National Academy at its annual meeting in Wash- 



