434 Professor Elias Loomis. 



facts about other auroras, and to make inductions from the 

 whole of the material thus brought together. He showed that 

 there was good reason for believing that not only was this 

 display represented by a corresponding one in the Southern 

 Hemisphere, but that all remarkable displays in either hemi- 

 sphere are accompanied by corresponding ones in the other < 



He showed also that all the principal phenomena of elec- 

 tricity were developed during the auroral display of 1859 ; 

 that light was developed in passing from one conductor to 

 another, that heat in poor conductors, that the peculiar electric 

 shock to the animal system, the excitement of magnetism in 

 irons, the deflection of the magnetic needle, the decomposition 

 of chemical solutions, each and all were produced during the 

 Auroral storm, and evidently by its agency. There were also 

 in America effects upon the telegraph that were entirely con- 

 sistent with the assumption previously made by Walker for 

 England, that currents of electricity moved from northeast to 

 southwest across the country. From the observations of the 

 motion of auroral beams, he showed that they also moved 

 from north-northeast to south-southwest, there being thus a 

 general correspondence in motion between the electrical cur- 

 rents and the motion of the beams. 



When there is a special magnetic disturbance at any place, 

 there is usually a similar one at all other neighboring places. 

 But these disturbances do not occur at the several places at the 

 same instant of time. Professor Loomis showed that in the 

 United States they take place in succession as we go from 

 northeast to southwest, the velocity of the wave of disturbance 

 being over one hundred miles per minute. The waves of mag- 

 netic irregularities were thus connected with the electrical 

 current and with the drifting motions of the streamers in the 

 auroral display. 



As incident to this discussion, he collected all available 

 observations of auroras, and he deduced from them the annual 

 number of auroras visible at each place of observation. These 

 numbers, when written upon a chart of the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere, showed that auroras were by no means equally dis- 

 tributed over the earth's surface. It was found that the 

 region in which they occurred most frequently was a belt or 



