HENRY LAWRENCE EUSTIS. 515 



service of the University whose names, arranged in the order of colle- 

 giate seniority, preceded his in the roll of the officers of instruction 

 and government. 



During the past two years Professor Eustis had heen known to be 

 iu failing health. Unwilling, however, to relinquish his classes, his 

 devotion to which was most uncommon, he was forced to ride the short 

 distance to the School, and finally to have his students come to him. 

 At last, however, his strength failed, his physicians sent him to Fer- 

 nandina, and his return was the result of the knowledge that death 

 was inevitable and near at hand. On Sunday morning, January 11, 

 1885, he died at his residence in Cambridge, greatly lamented by all 

 his friends and pupils. 



Professor Eustis contributed to the Memoirs of this Academy a 

 paper on the Tornado of August 27, 1851. The following brief ex- 

 tract from this paper forcibly illustrates the condition of Meteorology 

 at that time, as contrasted with its present advanced state. 



" The work of furnishing the material which shall, when properly 

 elaborated, form the solid and enduring structure of the true science 

 of meteorology is hardly begun. Storms of more or less violence are 

 constantly occurring, but they come without warning, and leave be- 

 hind them evidences, not only of their own desolating power, but of 

 man's ignorance, which prevented him from anticipating and guarding 

 against them. How many millions of dollars, and how many valuable 

 lives, would be annually saved if we had that precise knowledge which 

 could tell us with the voice of recognized authority that the storm is 

 approaching, and that the ship which we are so joyfully cheering on 

 her way is doomed to destruction if she leave the port! Nay, more, 

 we may deny even the possibility of prediction, and assume merely a 

 knowledge of the mode and sphere of action of storms, and even this 

 shall enable the mariner to direct his course with judgment and escape 

 their fury, instead of running, under false theories, into the very vor- 

 tex of ruin. If the storm be not a solitary exception to those general 

 laws which govern our physical world, — laws whose beauty, harmony, 

 universality, and mutual dependence Science is every day more and 

 more demonstrating, — then it is not unreasonable to suppose that the 

 time will come when its laws shall be so far made known that the 

 wayfarer on the mighty deep shall be able to escape from the approach- 

 ing hurricane, with the same certainty and decision with which we 

 now move out of the track of the rushing locomotive engine." 



His description of the path of the tornado is given as follows : — 



" Emerging from a thicket of forest growth, near the foot of Wei- 



