758 A MEMOIR OF ELIAS LOOMIS. 



lu 1884, he begau a revision of the whole series of pa])ers. They had 

 been presented without much regard to systematic order in the subjects 

 investigated, and new material had accumulated from time to time, so 

 that a thorough, systematic revison seemed absolutely necessary. 



In 18S5, he presented to the Academy of Sciences the first chapter of 

 this revision, in which he discussed the areas of low pressure — their 

 form, their size, their motions, and the j^henomeua attending them. 

 Two years later, in 1887, the second chapter of the revision appeared, 

 in which he discussed the areas of high pressure, their form, magnitude, 

 direction, and velocity of movement, and their relation to areas of low 

 pressure. Gradually his physical strength was failing, though his 

 mind was as bright and clear as ever. To this work, the only work 

 which he was now doing, he was able to give 2 or 3 hours a day. Anx- 

 iously he husbanded his strength, slowly and painfully preparing the 

 diagrams and the table for the third chapter ui)on rain areas, the phe- 

 nomena of rain-fall in its connection with areas of low pressure, and the 

 varied phenomena of unusual rain-fall. " I see," he said to a friend, 

 " not the end of this subject, but where I must stop. I hope I shall 

 have strength to finish this work, and then I shall be ready to die." 



This third and finishing chapter was finally passed through the print- 

 er's hands, and some advance copies distributed to correspondents 

 abroad in the summer mouths of 1889. His work upon the theory of 

 storms he felt was finished. As he paid the bill of the printer, he said 

 to him: "When I return at the close of the vacation I expect to put 

 into your hands for printing a new edition of the Loomis Genealogy.''' 

 Before the close of the vacation he died. 



These three chapters of his revised edition of " Contributions to Met- 

 eorology," constitute the full and ripe fruitage of his work in his favorite 

 science. They will for a long time to come be the basis of facts by 

 which writers in theoretical meteorology must test their formulas. 

 They cover all the important points taken up in the twenty-three ear- 

 lier memoirs with one important exception, — the relation of mountain 

 observations to those made on the plains below. The laws connecting 

 these two are not yet clearly indicated; much remains to be learned 

 about them, and they are of the utmost importance in theoretical mete- 

 orology. He felt most deeply the backward steps taken by the United 

 States Signal Service when mountain observations and tlie publication 

 of the International Bulletin were discontinued. " The National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences," he said, " ouglit at once to take up the subject and 

 use all its influence to secure the restoration of these two services. 



Professor Loomis at various times studied certain other questions 

 in physics and astronomy that were more or less allied with the sub- 

 jects to which he gave the principal part of his time, and he pub- 

 lished the results of his studies. He made a series of experiments 

 on currents of electricity generated by a plate of zinc buried in the 

 earth. He examined the electrical phenomena in certain houses in 



