HENRY

henry, victor (1850- ), french philologist, was born at colmar in alsace. having held appointments at douai and lille, he was appointed professor of sanskrit and comparative grammar in the university of paris. a prolific and versatile writer, he is probably best known by the english translations of his _precis de grammaire comparee de l'anglais et de l'allemand_ and _precis ... du grec et du latin_. important works by him on india and indian languages are: _manuel pour etudier le sanscrit vedique_ (with a. bergaigne, 1890); _elements de sanscrit classique_ (1902); _precis de grammaire palie_ (1904); _les litteratures de l'inde: sanscrit, pali, pracrit_ (1904); _la magie dans l'inde antique_ (1904); _le parsisme_ (1905); _l'agnistoma_ (1906). obscure languages (such as innok, quichua, greenland) and local dialects (_lexique etymologique du breton moderne; le dialecte alaman de colmar_) also claimed his attention. _le langage martien_ is a curious book. it contains a discussion of some 40 phrases (amounting to about 300 words), which a certain mademoiselle helene smith (a well-known spiritualist medium of geneva), while on a hypnotic visit to the planet mars, learnt and repeated and even wrote down during her trance as specimens of a language spoken there, explained to her by a disembodied interpreter.