Gray.] 42 [October 2, 
He regretted that the delicate health of Prof. Rogers 
prevented his attendance at this meeting, to portray both 
the scientific services and the personal character of his 
friend and associate of many years. In the absence of Prof. 
Rogers, no one present, and probably no surviving member 
of the Society, had known Prof. Henry so long and so inti- 
mately as himself. Most of the members present perhaps 
had hardly seen him; yet those who had enjoyed the privi- 
lege even of transient intercourse with him, must remem- 
ber that thoughtful and benignant face, and may have 
seen the seriousness of a somewhat abstracted mein lighted 
up with the winning smile and the gracious attention with 
which he welcomed those who had occasion to confer with 
him or to seek his aid or advice. 
Leaving to his surviving associates or compeers in other So- 
cieties, more germane to the subject, to portray his scientific 
services and researches, as they will be sure to do, Prof. Gray 
gave a brief sketch of Prof. Henry’s life, from his birth at Al- 
bany, N. Y., near the close of the last century, his early educa- 
tion under restricted opportunities ; his appointment as Pro- 
fessor of Natural Philosophy at the Albany Academy as soon 
as he had ceased to be a pupil there; the brilliant discoveries 
in electricity and magnetism, which made his name at once 
prominent throughout the scientific world; his translation to 
the College of New Jersey at Princeton in the year 1832; and 
thence to the Secretaryship of the then established Smith- 
sonian Institution in 1846; and his death in its service on 
the 13th of May last. Some anecdotes of his boyhood were 
related, among them the incident of the accidental perusal 
of a small volume of lectures on experimental philosophy, 
which gave him his first perception of what knowledge was, 
and fixed the tenor of his life. The simple sense of duty 
which impelled Prof. Henry to interrupt a career of research 
of almost unequalled brilliancy, by an undertaking which was 
sure to absorb his best years in administrative and perplex- 
ing cares, was referred tu; and to it was attributed the result, 
