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140 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS

Hon. Peter Parker, Rev. Dr John Maclean, Prof. Asa Gray, Prof. Henry Coppée, President Noah Porter, General Sherman, and the Secretary, Professor Baird.

The minutes of the meeting of January 15 were read and approved.

The Chancellor laid before the Board several hundred letters received in reply to the circulars issued by the Institution, announcing the death of Professor Henry, and the election of his successor.

The subject of the publication of the eulogies on Professor Henry, together with an account of his scientific writings, &c., was discussed, and on motion of Dr. Maclean, it was -

Resolved, That a special committee of three be appointed, of which the Secretary of the Institution shall be one, to prepare a memorial of Professor Henry, to include in a separate volume of the Smithsonian series such biographies and notices of the late Secretary of the Institution as may be considered by them worthy of preservation and publication.

The Chancellor appointed Messrs. Gray, Parker and Baird, as the committee.

The Chancellor then stated that any remarks the Regents desired to make in relation to Professor Henry were in order.

Dr Parker addressed the Board as follows:

Mr. CHANCELLOR AND FELLOW REGENTS: We are making history, and I wish to say a few words that shall remain upon its page, in memory of Joseph Henry, our beloved and lamented friend and Secretary, when we, like him, shall have passed from earth.

Many have already pronounced his eulogy and set forth his rare talents and influence upon the world, and I need not, and could not, were I to attempt it, add to your appreciation of Professor Henry, his life and character, as a friend, scientist, and Christian, the highest type of man. 

For twenty years I have been intimately acquainted with Professor Henry, and happily associated with him in many ways; for ten years as a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and as a member of the Executive Committee all that period of our intercourse has been frequent and intimate. I have never known a more excellent man. 

His memory has been much on my mind since he left us, and I often find myself inquiring how he and others like him are occupied now. His connection with time is severed, but his existence continues. When I recall the names of Professors Franklin Bache, Charles G. Page, Louis Agassiz, Joseph Henry, and others of similar intellect and virtue, I find myself asking the question, Are to them all consciousness and though suspended by separation from the body? I am reluctant to come to such conclusion. But this I know, the Infinite Father's ways are right.

It seems most providential that Professor Henry had the opportunity