REMINISCENCES BY PROF. H. C. CAMERON. 169 



of the college inquired, "Who is Ilciiry?" Even at that time 

 Professor Sillinian wrote : " Henry has no superior among the 

 scientific men of the country — at least among the young men ;" and 

 Professor Renwick wrote, "he has no equal." 



Professor Henry's great modesty prevented him from asserting 

 his own scientific claims; and it was only in connection with suits 

 pertaining to the electric telegrai)h that his own statements and the 

 testimony of others, judicially presented, irrefragably established 

 his just merits before the general public. From Henry's article 

 in Silliman's Journal in 1831, and from personal intercourse with 

 him in Princeton at a later period. Professor Morse obtained a 

 knowledge of those principles of electro-magnetism which rendered 

 his plan successful. Into this controversy the writer does not pro- 

 pose to enter. It is well known, however, that after eminent sci- 

 entific men had pronounced an electric telegraph impossible, a vision 

 of Utopia, Henry, by his discoveries in Albany and at Princeton, 

 had accomplished the great result, and furnished ocular and audible 

 demonstration of the fact. And it is not a little remarkable that 

 the operator now writes his message from the sound of his instru- 

 ment, upon Henry's original principle. He was never tempted 

 . to disparage others in consequence of any attempt to detract from 

 his own merits. He once remarked that he "wished to be judged 

 simply by what he had done; it was no great compliment to be told 

 that he had done a great deal considering his few early advantages ; 

 but if he was to be remembered, he desired to be remembered for 

 the real value of any discoveries he had made." 



He was elected Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution without 

 any elTort on his part. The scientific men of this country and of 

 Europe besought him to take the place. While others were seek- 

 ing tlie appointment, the late Professor A. D. Bache, Superinten- 

 dent of the Coast Survey, wrote to Europe and obtained the opinions 

 entertained by the most distinguished scientific men abroad in refer- 

 ence to Professor Henry. The letters of Sir David Brewster, 

 Faraday, Arago, and others, with those of Bache, Silliman, Hare, 

 and similarly distinguished men, were laid before the Board of 

 Kegents, and Professor Henry was unanimously elected. It was 

 at that time that Sir David Brewster wrote, "The mantle of 



