330 ELIAS LOOMIS. 



He published three large volumes, giving the names, residences, etc. 

 of about twenty-seven thousand descendants of his ancestor, Joseph 

 Loomis, who came from England to this country m 1638. 



Professor Loomis was doubtless more widely known as the author 

 of mathematical text-books than as a worker in new fields of science. 

 Shortly after coming to New York, he prepared a text-book m 

 Algebra. The market was ready for a good book of this kind, and 

 the work prepared for it was a good one. Other books followed the 

 Algebra from year to year, the whole forming a connected series from 

 Arithmetic upward, so that the list of his works finally numbered near 

 twenty volumes. His experience in teaching, his rare skill in lan- 

 guage, his clear conception of what was important, and his unwearied 

 painstaking, combined to produce text-books which met the wants of 

 teachers. About six hundred thousand volumes have been sold, bene- 

 fiting the schools and colleges, and bringing to the author a liberal 

 and well merited pecuniary return. 



College graduates who have been under his instruction will proba- 

 bly retain a more positive impression of the personal traits and the 

 character of Professor Loomis than of most of their other teachers. 

 His crisjj sentences, lucid thought, exactness of language, and steadi- 

 ness of requirement, more than made up for any apparent coldness 

 and real reserve. " If I have been successful in life," said Chief 

 Justice Waite (a member of the Yale College class of 1837), " I owe 

 that success to the influence of Tutor Loomis more than to any other 

 cause whatever." Professor Loomis lived a somewhat isolated life, 

 especially in his later years, but there was in him no trace of selfish or 

 morbid feeling. In council his advice was always marked by his 

 clear judgment of what was important, and at the same time what 

 was practicable. 



After going to New York he had a generous income from his 

 books, besides his salary as Professor. The amount he saved from 

 his income was carefully and prudently invested, and before his death 

 the savings with their accumulations were a large estate, — how large 

 only he and his banker knew. After making liberal provision for his 

 two sons, he bequeathed his estate to the Astronomical Observatory 

 of Yale University. The income from more than three hundred 

 thousand dollars will eventually be available to continue the work 

 of his life. 



