Joseph Henry. 463 
administrator of great public trusts in the interests of science, 
and his rare personal qualities, made him universally respected 
and beloved. His noble presence and cultivated bearing 
were always conspicuous, however distinguished the pate 
about him, and manifested truly the high morale which 
him a dignity rarely equalled. His genial reo not Jenminghed 
with a certain reserve, will never be fo n by those who 
enjoyed his friendship or came into familiar wai with him. 
Fortunately, a fine portrait painted quite recently, by order of 
the trustees of the Smithsonian Institution, will eon his 
well known features and render them familiar to posteri 
Professor Henry was born December 17, 1797, at AToahy 
New York, where also much of his early life was “passed, e 
had at first the advantages of only a commo ool educa- 
tion; later, after two years of work asa aaiieres he came 
under the training of the Albany Academy, where he developed 
ree of mathematical talent which, in 1826, led to his 
Selection for the duties of instructor in mathematics in that 
institution. Prior to this, having had some experience in the 
which A tieaect was ‘saa ted as the radix—a contrivance 
which is hardly known, even by name, to the present genera- 
tion of chemists. Thus, while Professor Henry’s original con- 
tributions. to science were chiefly physical, his first scientific 
work was in the department of chemistry. His work with Dr. 
Beck enabled him, after his removal to Princeton—where he 
became Professor of Natural Philosophy in 1832,—to take up 
the duties of the chemist, Dr. John Torrey, when that well 
known teacher was disabled for a time by ill h 
It was in the interval, between 1828 and 1837, wen the most 
important work of his life was accomplished in the line of 
strictly scientific research. These results are chiefly reco 
in the Transactions of the sen Institute, the volumes of 
this Journal for the period, and the Transactions of the Ameri- 
can y Heian a His ci : Gaiaiatigne to Electricity 
and collected in a separate volume in 1839. 
The aanlyein of shone important reseitreies; and the >isdustior 
