430 Professor Ellas Loomis. 



College and for science, passing away on the 15th of August, 



1889. 



Let us look now in succession at the different lines of his activ- 

 ity during these fifty-six years, — four here in the tutorship and 

 in Europe ; seven at Hudson, Ohio ; sixteen in New York City 

 and Princeton ; and twenty-nine in New Haven. 



For the first year on returning from Andover to New Haven, 

 he was tutor in Latin, although it seems that he might, had 

 he chosen it, have been tutor of Mathematics. I believe that 

 at the beginning his mind was not yet definitely turned toward 

 the exact sciences. In his childhood he had taken specially to 

 Greek. In college he was equally proficient in all of his studies. 

 He is represented to have led his class at Andover in Hebrew, 

 and now on entering the tutorship he chose to teach the Latin 

 language and literature. During the second year he taught 

 Mathematics, and the third year Natural Philosophy. His 

 later success in scientific work was, I believe, in no small meas- 

 ure due to his earlier broad and thorough study of language. 



I have made some inquiry in order to learn what it was that 

 turned his attention and tastes toward science. One of his 

 colleagues in the tutorship, the Rev. Dr. Davenport, says that 

 he recollects very distinctly the first indication to his own mind 

 that Tutor Loomis was turning his thoughts in this direction. 

 The great meteoric shower of 1833 came early in the period of 

 his tutorship, and the views of Professor Twining and Pro- 

 fessor Olmsted about the astronomical character and origin of 

 these interesting and mysterious bodies were a common topic of- 

 conversation among scientific men in the College, especially 

 whenever Professor Olmsted was present. The tutors were 

 accustomed to meet as a club from time to time in the tutors' 

 rooms in turn, and Dr. Davenport well recollects the occasion 

 when Tutor Loomis brought in a globe and discussed before the 

 club the new theories about these bodies. Up to this time 

 Tutor Loomis had seemed to him to have given his thoughts 

 and study to language rather than to science. 



In January, 1834, there were constituted in the Connecticut 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences twelve committees representing 

 the several departments of knowledge, and Tutor Loomis was 



