828 ELIAS LOOMIS. 



invention and introduction of tliis method of representing and discus- 

 sing the phenomena of a storm was j^robably the greatest of the ser- 

 vices which Professor Loomis rendered to science. This method is 

 at the foundation of what is sometimes called " the new meteorology," 

 and the paper which contains its first presentation is perhaps the most 

 important paper in the history of that science. 



At the close of this memoir Professor Loomis warmly urged the 

 plan of a systematic meteorological campaign. Shortly afterwards this 

 Academy appointed a comraiitee, of which Professor Loomis was 

 chairman, to urge upon the proper authorities the execution of the 

 plan. The American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia united 

 its voice with that of the Academy. About this time Professor Henry 

 was made Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and he determined 

 to make American meteorology one of the leading subjects of investi- 

 gation to be aided by the Institution. At Professor Henry's request. 

 Professor Loomis prepared a report upon the meteorology of the 

 United States, in which he showed what advantages society might ex- 

 pect from the study of the phenomena of storms ; what had been done 

 in this country toward making the necessary observations, and toward 

 deducing from them general laws ; and, finally, what encouragement 

 there was to a further prosecution of the same researches. He then 

 presented in detail a practicable plan for securing the hoped for 

 advantages in their fullest extent. 



The scheme laid down by Professor Loomis was in part followed 

 out by the Institution. But the fragmentary character of the obser- 

 vations, the want of systematic distribution of the observers, and the 

 imperfections of the barometers, made the material collected diffi- 

 cult of discussion. Professor Loomis waited in hopes of some better 

 system. 



This better system came when the United States Signal Service 

 was established, in 1871. The daily maps of the weather published by 

 the Bureau were constructed essentially after the plan which Professor 

 Loomis had, thirty years before, invented for the treatment of the storms 

 of 1842. As soon as these maps had been published for the two years 

 1872 and 1873, Professor Loomis commenced in earnest to deduce 

 from them the lessons which they taught us respecting the nature and 

 the phenomena of United States storms. To this investigation he 

 gave nearly all his energies during the remaining fifteen years of his 

 life. Beginning in April, 1874, he presented at each of eighteen 

 successive meetings of the National Academy of Sciences, in April 

 and in October of each year, a paper entitled " Contributions to Me- 



