Henry, WILLIAM

Henry, WILLIAM, a chemist, was born at Manchester, 12th December 1774, and died on 2d September 1836 at Pendlebury near that city. In 1795 he began to study medicine at Edinburgh, but at the end of his first session he returned home to superintend a chemical business which had been established by his father, and it was not until 1805 that he was able to resume his studies at Edinburgh. He only practised for a short time in Manchester, preferring to devote himself to original investigation in chemistry. He was the author of some very valuable papers in the Philosophical Transactions (chiefly on the chemistry of the gases); and his Elements of Experimental Chemistry, in two volumes, which was published in 1799, reached an eleventh edition in 1829. Henry was awarded by the Royal Society the Copley gold medal in 1809. The Memoirs of the Manchester Society are chiefly indebted to him and to Dalton for their high scientific character.