William Henry was apprenticed to
Thomas Percival and later worked with John Ferriar & John Huit at the Manchesters Infirmary. He began to study medicine at
University of Edinburgh in 1795, taking his medical in 1807, but ill-health interrupted his practice as a
physician, and he devoted his time mainly to chemical research, especially with regard to gases. One of his best-known papers (published in
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1803) describes experiments on the quantity of gases absorbed by water at different temperatures and under different pressures. His results are known today as
Henry's law. His other papers deal with gas-analysis,
fire-damp,
illuminating gas, the composition of
hydrochloric acid and of
ammonia,
urinary and other
morbid concretions, and the disinfecting powers of heat. His
Elements of Experimental Chemistry (1799) enjoyed considerable vogue in its day, going through eleven editions in 30 years. He was one of the founders of the
Mechanics' Institute, the original precursor of
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. He was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society in February 1809, having been awarded their prestigious
Copley Medal in 1808. and elected to the
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on 2.April 1796. He shot himself in his private chapel at
Pendlebury, near Manchester, in 1836. ==Notes==