regarded by Prof. Newton as perhaps the greatest of the services which Prof. Loomis rendered to science. The author expressed the opinion in his memoir that "if the course of investigations adopted with respect to the two storms of February, 1842, was systematically pursued we should soon have some settled principles in meteorology. If we could be furnished with two meteorological charts of the United States daily for one year—charts showing the state of the barometer, thermometer, winds, sky, etc., for every part of the country—it would settle forever the laws of storms. No false theory could stand against such an array of testimony. Such a set of maps would be worth more than all which has been hitherto done in meteorology. . . . A well-arranged system of observations spread over the country would accomplish more in one year than observations at a few isolated posts, however accurate and complete, continued till the end of time." Prof. Loomis suggested that the American Philosophical Society should undertake the supervision of such a work, for which local observers would not be wanting. The idea was seconded by Professors Bache and Peirce. The Academy of Sciences at Boston appointed a committee, of which Prof. Loomis was a member, to urge the execution of such a plan upon some proper authority. The American Philosophical Society added its voice. Prof. Henry determined to make American meteorology one of the subjects of investigation to be aided by the Smithsonian Institution; and, by his invitation. Prof. Loomis made a detailed report on the scheme, with an outlined plan of research. This plan was adopted in part by the Smithsonian Institution, but a more perfect organization of observations was needed than the institution could then command before it could reach the perfection of the present system.
In connection with a rediscussion of the storm of 1836, which Prof. Loomis undertook in 1854, he collected a series of observations made in Europe of a storm that occurred there about a week later than the one under review; but, instead of tracing a connection between them, he found that they were distinct, and that the laws of American and European storms did not agree in all cases.
Another subject in which Prof. Loomis was interested, and which stood in relation with his researches in terrestrial magnetism, was that of the aurora borealis. He collected the accounts from North America, Europe, Asia, and even the Southern Hemisphere, of the great display of August and September, 1859; and, comparing them with such facts as he could gather about other auroras, he deduced many conclusions which have since been confirmed in their essential features concerning the relations of the aurora and electricity, magnetism, light, heat, and sun-spots;
