ELIAS L00MI3. 327 



Meteorology. — The science of Meteorology is, however, that in 

 which Professor Loomis has made the most important contributions 

 to human knowledge. From the date of his tutorship at Yale, Pro- 

 fessor Loomis had taken a warm interest in meteorology ; and in par- 

 ticular its central problem, the theory of storms, held in his thought 

 and work the first place from that time to the day of his death. For 

 several years, in Hudson, he steadily performed the naturally irksome 

 task of makmg twice each day a complete set of meteorological ob- 

 servations. He also undertook the discussion of several large storms. 

 A paper giving the results of the discussion of two of these storms, 

 occurring in the month of February, 1842, was sent to Professor 

 Bache, and read by him at the centennial meeting of the American 

 Philosophical Society in May, 1843, and created, as Professor Bache 

 wrote, a great sensation. It was at that time important for the light 

 which it threw upon the rival contending theories of Espy and of Red- 

 field, but it was more important by far by reason of the new method of 

 investigation then for the first time employed. In this discussion of the 

 storms of 1842, Professor Loomis drew on the map a series of lines 

 of equal barometric pressure, or rather of equal deviation from the nor- 

 mal average pressure for each place. A series of maps representing 

 the storm at successive intervals of twelve hours were thus constructed, 

 upon each of which was drawn a line through all the places where 

 the barometer stood at its normal or average height. A second line 

 was drawn through all the places where the barometer stood ^2_ of an 

 inch below the normal ; and other lines through points where the 

 barometer was y*^ below, ^^ below, f^ below, etc. ; also lines were 

 drawn through those points where the barometer stood ^jj, ^, j%, 

 etc., above its normal height. The deviations of the barometric pres- 

 sure from the normal were thus made prominent, and all other phe- 

 nomena of the storm were regarded as related to those barometric 

 lines. A series of colors represented respectively the places where 

 the sky was clear, where the sky was overcast, and where rain or 

 snow was falling. A series of lines represented the places at which 

 the temperature was at the normal, or was 10, 20, or 30 degrees 

 above the normal or below the normal. Arrows of proper direction 

 and length represented the direction and the intensity of the wind at 

 the different stations. These successive maps for three or four days 

 of the storm furnished to the eye all its phenomena in a simple and 

 most effective manner. The method seems so natural, that it should 

 occur to any person who has the subject of a storm under considera- 

 tion. But the greatest inventions are oftentimes the simplest, and the 



