A MEMOIR OF ELIAS LOOMIS. 755 



charged with like responsibility, as he showed me, oue or two decades 

 later (in 1869), charts constructed like those of Professor Loomis, and 

 said, " I care not for the mass of observations made in the usual form. 

 What I want is the power and the material for making such charts as 

 these." These two expressions of Sir George Airy and of LeYerrier 

 mark the progress and the direction of progress in meteorology devel- 

 oped by Professor Loomis's memoir. 



What was his own judgment of the method at the time of its publi- 

 cation and its value in meteorology can be seen from his words at the 

 close of the memoir, which I beg permission to quote : 



"It appears to me that if the course of investigations adopted svith 

 respect to the two storms of February, 1842, was systematically pursued 

 we should soon have some settled principles in meteorology. If we could 

 be furnished with two meteorological 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. Moreover the subject would be 

 well-nigh exhausted. But one year's observation would be needed. 

 The storms of oue year are probably but a repetition of those of the 

 preceding. Instead then of the guerrilla warfare, which has been main- 

 tained for centuries with indifierent success, although at the expense 

 of great self-devotion on the part of individual chiefs, is it not timo to 

 embark in a general meteorological crusade I A well-arranged system of 

 observations spread over the country would accomplish more in one 

 year than observations at a few isolated iiosts, however accurate and 

 complete, continued to the end of time. The United States are favor- 

 ably situated for such an enterprise. Observations spread over a smaller 

 territory would be inadequate, as they would not show the extent of 

 any large storm. If we take a survey of the entire globe we shall search 

 in vain for more than one equal area which could be occuj^ied by the 

 same number of trusty observers. In Europe there is opportunity for 

 a like organization, but with this incumbrance, that it must needs em- 

 brace several nations of different languages and governments. The 

 United States then aflbrd decidedly the most hopeful field fi.^ such an 

 enterprise. Shall we hesitate to embark in it; or shall we -ope tim- 

 idly aloug as in former years ? There are but few questions v.f science 

 which can be i^rosecuted in this country to the same advantage as in 

 Europe. Here is one where the advantage is in our favor. W^ould it 

 not be wise to devote our main strength to the reduction of this for- 

 tress? We need observers spread over the entire country at distances 

 from each other not more than 50 miles. This would require five or six 

 hundred observers for the United States. About half this number of 

 registers are now kept in one shape or another, and the number by suit- 

 able efforts might probably be doubled. Supervision is needed to in- 



