Professor Elia% Loornis, 433 



Various paper- on terrestrial magnetism, in continuation of 

 his earlier investigations, appeared in L842, in 1S44, ill 1S47, 

 and in L859, but movements in Germany, England and Russia 

 had meanwhile been inaugurated which led to the establish- 

 ment by governments of a score of well equipped magnetic 

 observatories, and this subject passed largely out of private 

 hands. 



Closely connected with terrestrial magnetism, and to be 

 considered with it, is the Aurora Boreal is. In the week that, 

 covered the end of August and the beginning of September, 

 L859, there occurred an exceedingly brilliant display of the 

 Northern Lights. Believing; that an exhaustive discussion of 

 a -ingle aurora promised to do more for the promotion of 

 science than an imperfect study of an indefinite number of them, 

 Professor Loomis undertook at once to collect and to collate 

 accounts of this display. A large number of such accounts 

 were secured from North America, from Europe, from Asia, 

 and from places in the Southern Hemisphere ; especially all 

 the reports from the Smithsonian observers and correspondents, 

 were placed in his hands by the Secretary, Professor Henry. 



These observations and the discussions of them were given 

 to the public during the following tw r o years, in a series of nine 

 papers in the American Journal of Science. 



Few, if any, displays on record were as remarkable as was 

 this one for brilliancy and for geographical extent. Certainly 

 about no aurora have there been collected so many facts. The 

 display continued for a week. The luminous region entirely 

 encircled the North Pole of the earth. It extended on this 

 continent on the 2d of September as far south as Cuba, and to 

 an unknown distance to the north. In altitude the bases of 

 the columns of light were about fifty miles above the earth's 

 surface, and the streamers shot up at times to a height of five 

 hundred miles. Thus over a broad belt on both continents 

 this large region above the lower atmosphere was filled with 

 masses of luminous material. A display similar to this, and 

 possibly of equal brilliancy, was at the same time witnessed in 

 the Southern Hemisphere. 



The nine papers were mainly devoted to the statements of 

 observers. Professor Loomis, however, went on to collect 



