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136   JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS.

On motion, it was

Resolved, That the Chancellor prepare a suitable notice of the death of Professor Henry, to be sent to foreign establishments in correspondence with the Institution, and also notifying them of the election of Professor Baird as Secretary.

The Chancellor stated that the resignation of Mr. Bancroft had occasioned a vacancy in the Executive Committee, and, on motion, it was

Resolved, That the vacancy in the Executive Committee be filled by the election of General Sherman. 

The Board then adjourned sine die. 

Agreeably to the resolution of the Board, the Chancellor of the Institution, on behalf of the Regents, prepared the following circulars, which were promptly distributed to the correspondents of the Institution in all parts of the world:

"SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
"Washington, D. C., May 14, 1878.

"On behalf of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, it becomes my mournful duty to announce the death of the Secretary and Director of the Institution, Joseph Henry, LL.D., which occurred in this city on Monday, May 13, at 12.10 o'clock p. m.

"Professor Henry was born in Albany, in the State of New York, December 17, 1799. He became professor of mathematics in the Albany Academy in 1826; professor of natural philosophy in the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, in 1832, and was elected the first Secretary and Director of the Smithsonian Institution in 1846. 

"He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Union College in 1829; was chosen president of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1868; president of the Philosophical Society of Washington in 1871, and Chairman of the Light-House Board of the United States in the same year; the last three positions he continued to fill until his death. 

"Professor Henry made contributions to science in electricity, electromagnetism, meteorology, capillarity, acoustics, and in other branches of physics; he published valuable memoirs in the transactions of various learned societies of which he was a member, and devoted thirty-two years of his life to making the Smithsonian Institution what its founder intended it to be, an efficient instrument for the "increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."

"M. R. WAITE,
"Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution.