Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/201

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HENRY
HENRY
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been of permanent value to science. In 1846 he was elected first secretary and director of the Smithsonian institution, and in December of that year removed with his family to Washington. The organization, equipment, and development of this great scientific establishment, thenceforth until his death, occupied his principal attention. He was nominated to the chair of natural philosophy in the University of Pennsylvania, with a salary twice as large as that which he was receiving in Washing- ton, and efforts were made to induce him to return to Princeton as its president in 1853, and also in 1867, but these offers were steadily refused. Like Agassiz, he may have answered when tempted by larger salaries, " I can not afford to waste my time in making money." Prof. Simon Newcomb says of him : " He never engaged in an investigation or an enterprise which was to put a dollar into his own pocket, but aimed only at the general good of the world." On the organization of the light- house board in 1852 he was made one of its mem- bers, and from 1871 till his death was its chair- man. The establishment of the National light- house system is very largely due to him, although his services, during his later years especially, were principally advisory, though he continued his in- vestigations in its behalf until his death, being oc- cupied in its work when the final illness came. During the civil war he was constantly called on to consider plans and devices for facilitating military and naval operations. Throughout his career in Washington he acted as confidential adviser on scientific matters to the government, and the com- position of commissions for technical purposes was generally referred to him. He received the degree of LL. D. from Union in 1829. and from Harvard in 1851. In 1849 he was elected president of the American association for the advancement of science, and he was one of the original members of the National academy of science, succeeding Alexander D. Bache in 1868 as president. Prof. Henry was also a member of other societies, both in the United States and Europe. His published papers include over 150 titles, and were contribut- ed principally to American scientific journals. He also wrote valuable articles for the " Ameri- can " and other cyclopaedias, and was the author of a series of papers on " Meteorology in its Connec- tion with Agriculture," contributed to the " Agri- cultural Reports " (1855-'9). His single book was "Syllabus of Lectures on Physics" (Princeton, 1844), although he edited the annual volumes of the "Smithsonian Reports "from 1846 till 1877. In 1886 two volumes of the "Scientific Writings of Joseph Henry " were published by the Smithsonian institution. See " A Memorial of Joseph Henry," published by order of congress (Washington, 1880). HENRY, Morris Henry, physician, b. in Lon- don, England, 26 July, 1835. He was educated in London and in Belgium, came to the United States, and was graduated in medicine at the University of Vermont in 1860. He was assistant surgeon in the navy during the civil war, and then settled in New York city, and was surgeon-in-chief of the Emigrant hospital, Ward's island, in 1872-'80. He is a member of many medical societies, and has in- vented various surgical methods and appliances, including the application of plano-convex lenses in examining the throat and upper air-passages (1864) ; cutting-forceps for the removal of plaster dressings (1868); depilating-forceps (1874); and cartilage-scissors to facilitate the removal of dense tissues (1881). He is the originator and editor of the " American Journal of Dermatology," and has published numerous monographs, including " Treat- ment of Venereal Diseases in Vienna Hospital" (1872), and "Anomalous Localities of Chancres" (1874). He delivered an address on "Specialists and Specialties in Medicine " before the alumni of the University of Vermont in 1876.


HENRY, Patrick, statesman, b. at Studlev, Hanover co., Va., 29 May, 1736 ; d. in Red Hill, Charlotte co., Va., 6 June, 1799. His father, John Henry, was a Scotchman, son of Alexander Henry and Jean Robertson, a cousin of the historian William Robertson and of the mother of Lord Brougham. His mother was Sarah Winston, of the Eng- lish family of that name. The father of Patrick Henry gave his son a classical education, but he en- tered upon business at an early age. At eighteen he married, and, having tried farming and mer- chandise without suc- cess, became a lawver in 1760. His fee-

books show a large

practice from the beginning of his professional life ; but his surpassing powers as an orator were not discovered till, in December, 1763, he ar- gued what is known as the " Parson's cause." This was a suit brought by a minister of the established church in Virginia to recover his salary, which had been fixed at 16,000 pounds of tobacco. A short crop had caused a great advance in its market price, and induced the colonial legislature to pass an act commuting the salaries of the ministers into money at the rate of two pence for a pound of tobacco, which was its former price. This act had not been approved by the king, but the house of burgesses determined to enforce it. In his speech for the de- fence Mr. Henry displayed powers of oratory of the first order, and boldly struck the key-note of the American Revolution by arguing that "a king, by disallowing acts of a salutary nature, from being the father of his people, degenerates into a tyrant, and forfeits all right to his subjects' obedience." The passage of the stamp-act by the British parlia- ment in 1765 was made known in the colonies in May, 1765. They had remonstrated against its pro- posed passage ; but no one was bold enough to coun- sel resistance to its enforcement until, upon the res- ignation of a member of the Virginia house of bur- gesses from Louisa county, Mr. Henry was elected to fill the vacancy. On '29 May, 1765, nine days after taking his seat, and on his twenty-ninth birth- day, he moved a series of resolutions defining the rights of the colony, and pronouncing the stamp- act unconstitutional and subversive of British and American liberty. These were resisted by all the men that had been previously leaders in that body. After a speech of great eloquence, which was de- scribed by Thomas Jefferson as surpassing any- thing he ever heard, Mr. Henry carried five of his resolutions, the last by a majority of only one. The whole series were published, and the public mind became so inflamed that everywhere resistance to the tax was openly made, and its enforcement be- came impracticable. Mr. Henry at once became the leader in his colony. In May, 1773, he, with Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, and Dabney Carr, carried through the Virginia house of bur-