41 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



regarded by Prof. Newton as perhaps the greatest of the services 

 which Prof. Loomis rendered to science. The author expressed 

 the opinion in his memoir that " if the course of investigations 

 adopted with respect to the two storms of February, 1842, was 

 systematically pursued we should soon have some settled prin- 

 ciples in meteorology. If we could be furnished with two me- 

 teorological charts of the United States daily for one year— charts 

 showing the state of the barometer, thermometer, winds, sky, 

 etc., for every part of the country— it would settle forever the 

 laws of storms. No false theory could stand against such an 

 array of testimony. Such a set of maps would be worth more 

 than all which has been hitherto done in meteorology. ... A 

 well-arranged system of observations spread over the country 

 would accomplish more in one year than observations at a few 

 isolated posts, however accurate and complete, continued till the 

 end of time." Prof. Loomis suggested that the American Philo- 

 sophical Society should undertake the supervision of such a work, 

 for which local observers would not be wanting. The idea was 

 seconded by Professors Bache and Peirce. The Academy of Sci- 

 ences at Boston appointed a committee, of which Prof. Loomis 

 was a member, to urge the execution of such a plan upon some 

 proper authority. The American Philosophical Society added its 

 voice. Prof. Henry determined to make American meteorology 

 one of the subjects of investigation to be aided by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution ; and, by his invitation. Prof. Loomis made a 

 detailed report on the scheme, with an outlined plan of research. 

 This plan was adopted in part by the Smithsonian Institution, but 

 a more perfect organization of observations was needed than the 

 institution could then command before it could reach the perfec- 

 tion of the present system. 



In connection with a rediscussion of the storm of 1836, which 

 Prof. Loomis undertook in 1854, he collected a series of observa- 

 tions made in Europe of a storm that occurred there about a 

 week later than the one under review ; but, instead of tracing a 

 connection between them, he found that they were distinct, and 

 that the laws of American and European storms did not agree 

 in all cases. 



Another subject in which Prof. Loomis was interested, and 

 which stood in relation with his researches in terrestrial magnet- 

 ism, was that of the aurora borealis. He collected the accounts 

 from North America, Europe, Asia, and even the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere, of the great display of August and September, 1859 ; and, 

 comparing them with such facts as he could gather about other 

 auroras, he deduced many conclusions which have since been 

 confirmed in their essential features concerning the relations of 

 the aurora and electricity, magnetism, light, heat, and sun-spots ; 



