742 A MEMOIR OF ELIAS LOOMIS. 



lie frequently said that in lus early days he never had a thought of 

 askiiiii: Avhat subjects he was most fond of, but studied what he was told 

 to study. 



At the age of 14 he was examined and was admitted to Yale College, 

 but owing to feeble health he waited another year before actually eu- 

 tering a class. In college ho appears to have been about equally pro- 

 ficient in all of the studies, taking a good rank as a scholar, and main- 

 taining it through his college course. President Porter renienibers well 

 the retiring demeanor of the young student, and his concise and often 

 monosyllabic expressions, peculiarities which he retained through life. 

 During his junior and senior j'ears he roomed with Alfred 10. Perkins, 

 whose bequest was the first large endowment of the college library. 

 He graduated in 1830. 



A few weeks before graduation he left Xew Haven and entered a 

 school, Mount Hope Institute, near Jialtimore, to teach mathematics, 

 and he remained there for a year and a term. One of his classmates, the 

 late Mr. Cone of Hartford, said that Mr. Lcomis had intended to spend 

 his life in teaching, and that it surprised him when he heard that his 

 l)urpose was abandoned, and that Mr. Loomis had gone, in thea'itumn 

 of 1831, to the Andover theological seminary with the distinct expecta- 

 tion of becoming a preacher. This new purpose was however again 

 changed, when a year later, he was appointed tutor in Yale College. A 

 vacancy in the tutorship in the May following (1833), and while not yet 

 22 years of age he returned to New" Haven and entered upon the duties 

 of the ofdce. Here he remained for 3 years and one term. In the 

 spring of 1836 he received the appointment to the chair of mathematics 

 and natural philosophy in Western Keserve College, at Hudson, Ohio. 

 He was allowed to spend the tirst year in Europe. He was therefore 

 during the larger part of the year 183(3-37 in Paris attending the lec- 

 tures of Biot, Poisson, Arago, Dulong, Pouillet, and others. He did 

 not visit Germany because of want of money. A long series of letters 

 written by him at this time appeared in the Ohio Observer, and the con- 

 trast between England and France as he saw them, and the same 

 places as seen by the tourist to day is decidedly intercvsting. 



He purchased in London and Paris apparatus for his professorsliip 

 and the outfit for a small observatory, and in the autumn of 1837 began 

 his labors at Hudson. Here he remained for 7 years, maintaining with 

 unflagging perseverance both his work in teaching and his scientific 

 labors. In judging of this work at Hudson we must remember that he 

 was not with i)erfect surroundings. He was without an assistant and 

 without the counsel and encouragement of associates in I'is own branches 

 of science. The financial troubles which culminated in this country in 

 1837 were peculiarly severe upon the young and struggling college. 

 Money was almost unknown in business circles in Ohio, trade being 

 almost entirely in barter. In this way i)rincii)ally was paid so much of 

 the promised salary of $001) per annum as was not in arrears. In one 



