PROF. JOHN MILNE 



By CHARLES DAVISON, Sc.D., F.G.S. 



To three Englishmen, living almost in three different centuries, 

 we are chiefly indebted for the advances which have culminated 

 in the new science of seismology. John Michell (1724-1793), 

 one of the early Woodwardian professors at Cambridge, wrote 

 the first important memoir on a great earthquake, that of Lisbon 

 in 1755, and, in endeavouring to account for its various pheno- 

 mena, foresaw some of the main lines on which the science 

 has since developed. Robert Mallet (1810-1881), a Dublin 

 engineer, with unfailing industry codified our knowledge of the 

 nature of earthquakes and devised new methods of investigation 

 which he applied to the Neapolitan earthquake of 1857. Much 

 of Mallet's work remains, but his methods and theoretical views 

 are to a great extent superseded, and the instruments which he 

 devised for the registration of earthquakes are of little value. It 

 was reserved for John Milne (1850-1913) to advance far beyond 

 the limits to which Michell and Mallet attained. His influence 

 and energy were such that, at the close of his life, when the study 

 of earthquakes has attracted a host of workers and its practical 

 importance is fully recognised, we may yet claim for him the 

 chief share in the growth of the science. 



Of the three, Milne received the training best adapted to his 

 future career. Born at Liverpool on December 30, 1850, he was 

 educated as a mining engineer under Warington Smyth at the 

 Royal School of Mines. After gaining experience in the mines 

 of Cornwall, Lancashire, and Central Europe, he spent two 

 summers in ascertaining the mineral resources of Newfoundland, 

 while his interest in geology was manifested by the valuable 

 remains of the great auk which he brought home from Funk 

 Island. In 1874' he acted as geologist in Beke's expedition to 

 north-west Arabia ; and, a year later, received the appointment 

 which determined the bent of his future life, that of consulting 

 mining engineer and geologist to the Government of Japan. 



It was characteristic of Milne's energy and wide interests 



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