heart. He was active, observant, and intelligent, a favorite partner at childish parties, and danced elegantly. This beautiful boyhood unfolded into a noble manhood, which took a turn so original and instructive, that we cannot do better than give some account of it to the readers of the Popular Science Monthly.
Young Henslow early developed a taste for the study of natural objects, and for making collections and experiments. His scientific future was symbolized by an adventure made while yet a child in a frock, and which consisted in dragging all the way home from a field, a considerable distance off, an enormous fungus which was dried and long preserved in the family. The lad had good blood and a good chance; his grandfather, Sir John Henslow, Chief Surveyor of the Navy, was a man of scientific attainments and much ingenuity; his mother was an accomplished woman, fond of natural history, and an assiduous collector of natural and artificial curiosities. His father had a great taste for birds, kept an extensive aviary, and had an ample library of natural history. The drawing-master at his school was a good entomologist and introduced the boy to some of the eminent naturalists of the day, who gave direction to his studies. He collected insects in the woods of Kent, and crustacea and shells from the bed of the Medway. many of his specimens were new and valuable, and found their way into the drawers of the British Museum. At the age of eighteen he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, and four years later took his degree of B. A. A year subsequently, in 1819, he accompanied Prof. Sedgwick to the Isle of Wight, where he took his first practical lessons in geology. He had been elected Fellow of the Linnæan Society in 1818, became a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1819, and made his first essay in authorship by a contribution to its proceedings in 1821, when twenty-five years of age. Mr. Henslow had paid much attention to mathematics in college, was a thorough student of mineralogy and chemistry, and took a leading part in founding the Cambridge Philosophical Society, in 1819. In 1822 he was elected Professor of Mineralogy in the Cambridge University. He was not an eloquent lecturer, but he had a good voice, and a remarkably clear way of expressing himself. He cultivated the art of explanation and adapting his language to the capacity of his hearers, and thus became one of the very best lecturers of the day. But the chair of Mineralogy was not what Prof. Henslow wanted. His favorite study was botany, and, a vacancy occurring in this professorship, Prof. Henslow was elected to the position in 1823. This science, and natural history generally, were in a low state in the university at that time. [1] His predecessor
- ↑ "In a low state," the reader must remember, not merely from neglect, but from hostility on the part of the classicists and mathematicians who had possession of the establishment. Even years afterward, when, mainly under Prof. Henslow's influence, natural history studies began to receive attention, Edward Forbes spent a couple of days in Cambridge and wrote: "I was greatly pleased with my visit, except in one thing—to
