DISCOURSE OF Dll. J. C. WELLING. 183 



he started out himself on a grammatical tour through the provincial 

 districts of New York, and returning from this first field of his 

 triumphs as a teacher, he entered the Albany Academy (then in 

 charge of Dr. T. Romeyn Beck) as a pupil in its more advanced 

 studies. Meanwhile, in order to "pay his way" in the academy, 

 he sought employment as a teacher in a neighboring district school, 

 this being, as he afterwards was wont to say, the only office he had 

 ever sought in his life; and in this office he succeeded so well that 

 his salary was raised from $8 for the first month to the munificent 

 sum of $15 for the second month of his service! From pupil in 

 the academy and teacher of the district school, he was soon pro- 

 moted to the rank of assistant in the academy, and henceforward 

 had ample means for the further prosecution of his studies. Leav- 

 ing the academy, he next accepted the post of private tutor in the 

 family of the patroon in Albany, Mr. S. Van Rensselaer;; and, 

 devoting his leisure hours to the study of the higher mathematics, 

 in conjunction Avith chemistry, physiology, and anatomy, he at this 

 time purposed to enter the medical profession, and had made some 

 advances in this direction, when he was called, in the year 1826, to 

 embark in a surveying expedition, set on foot under the auspices of 

 the State government of New York, foe the purpose of laying out 

 a road through the southern tier of counties in that State. Starting 

 with his men at West Point, and going through the woods to Lake 

 Erie, he acquitted himself so well in this expedition that his friends 

 endeavored to procure for him a permanent appointment as captain 

 of an engineering corps, which it was proposed to create for the 

 prosecution of other internal improvement schemes,* but the bill 

 projected for this purpose having fallen through, Mr. Henry 

 again accepted, though with some reluctance, a vacant chair which 

 was offered him in the Albany Academy. 



In connection with the duties of this chair, he now commenced 

 a series of original experiments in natural philosophy — the first 

 connected series which had been prosecuted in this country. Dr. 

 Hare, indeed, had already invented the compound blowpipe, as 

 Franklin before him, by his brilliant but desultory labors, had 

 given an immense impulse to the science of electricity; yet none 

 the less is it true that regular and systematic investigations, designed 



