450 Professor Elias Loomis. 



order in the subjects investigated, and new material had 

 accumulated from time to time, so that a thorough, systematic 

 revision seemed absolutely necessary. 



In 1885 he presented to the Academy of Sciences the first 

 chapter of this revision, in which he discussed the areas of low 

 pressure — their form, their size, their motions, and the phe- 

 nomena attending them. Two years later, in 1887, the second 

 chapter of the revision appeared, in which he discussed the 

 areas of high pressure, their form, magnitude, direction and 

 velocity of movement, and their relation to areas of low pres- 

 sure. Gradually his physical strength was failing, though his 

 mind was as bright and clear as ever. To this work, the only 

 work which he was now doing, he was able to give two or 

 three hours a day. Anxiously he husbanded his strength, 

 slowly and painfully preparing the diagrams and the tables for 

 the third chapter upon rain areas, the phenomena of rainfall in 

 its connection with areas of low pressure, and the varied phe- 

 nomena of unusual rainfall. u I see," he said to a friend, " not 

 the end of this subject, but where I must stop. I hope I shall 

 have strength to finish this work, and then I shall be ready to 

 die." 



This third and finishing chapter was finally passed through 

 the printer's hands and some advance copies distributed to 

 correspondents abroad in the summer months of 1889. His 

 work upon the theory of storms he felt was finished. As he 

 paid the bill of the printer, he said to him : " When I return 

 at the close of the vacation I expect to put into your hands 

 for printing a new edition of the Loomis Genealogy r ." Before 

 the close of the vacation he died. 



These three chapters of his revised edition of Contributions 

 to Meteorology constitute the full and ripe fruitage of his work 

 in his favorite science. They will for a long time to come be 

 the basis of facts by which writers in theoretical meteorology 

 must test their formulas. They cover all the important points 

 taken up in the twenty-three earlier memoirs, — with one 

 important exception, the relation of mountain observations to 

 those made on the plains below. The laws connecting these 

 two are not yet clearly indicated ; much remains to be learned 

 about them, and they are of the utmost importance in theoret- 



