Memoirs of the Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain Living in the Years 1807-8Walker, William
History
Memoirs of the Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain Living in the Years 1807-8
Walker, William
Scientists -- Great Britain -- Biography
It is greatly to be regretted that Dr. Henry did not contribute more
to the literature of science, as he appears to have been eminently
fitted, both by natural tastes and by after culture, to excel in this
particular respect; especially is it to be regretted that he did not
live to carry out the great literary project for which he had collected
materials--a history of chemical discovery from the middle of the last
century. He could have made it one of the most popular books in our
tongue.
In the general intercourse of society Dr. Henry was distinguished by
a polished courtesy, by an intuitive propriety, and by a considerate
forethought and respect for the feelings and opinions of others;
qualities issuing out of the same high-toned sensibility, that guided
his taste in letters, and that softened and elevated his whole moral
frame and bearing. His comprehensive range of thought and knowledge,
his proneness to general speculation in contradistinction to detail,
his ready command of the refinements of language, and the liveliness
of his feelings and imagination, rendered him a most instructive and
engaging companion. To the young, and more especially to such as gave
evidence of a taste for liberal studies, his manner was peculiarly
kind and encouraging. In measuring the amount and importance of his
contributions to chemical knowledge, it must be borne in mind, that
in his season of greatest mental activity, he never enjoyed that
uncontrolled command of time and that serene concentration of thought
which are essential to the completion of great scientific designs.
In more advanced life, when relieved from the duties of an extensive
medical practice and other equally pressing avocations, growing
infirmities and failing bodily power restrained him to studies not
demanding personal exertion, and even abridged his season of purely
mental labour. That amid circumstances so unfriendly to original
and sustained achievements in science, he should have accomplished
so much, bears testimony to that energy of resolve, that unsubdued
ardour of spirit which ever glowed within him, urging him steadily
onwards in the career of honourable ambition, and prompting exertions
more than commensurate with the decaying forces of a frame that had
never been vigorous. At intervals during his whole life, Dr. Henry
suffered severely from the effect of the accident already mentioned.
The paroxysms of intense neuralgic agony which attacked him, at length
caused the whole nervous system to be so irritated as to deprive
him of sleep, and cause his death in September, 1836, at the age of
sixty-one.--_Biographical Account of the late Dr. Henry, by his son,
William Charles Henry, M.D., F.R.S., &c._--_Encyclopædia Britannica_,
Eighth Edition.
SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL, D.C.L., F.R.S., &c.
Born November 15, 1738. Died August 23, 1822.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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