1908] Recent EarthquaTces. 131 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, March 20, 1908. 



Donald W. C. Hood, Esq., C.V.O. M.D. F.R.C.P., 



Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Mr. John Milne. 



Recent Earthquakes. 



Until recent years the attitude of the ordinary Englishman with re- 

 gard to earthquakes has been one of apathy. He argued that although 

 every year 30,000 earthquakes might occur in the world, his country 

 only contributed about half a dozen, and these because they were so 

 small did more to excite curiosity than to create alarm. Although in 

 1883 Colchester, and in 1896 Hereford lost a few chimney pots, and 

 buildings were unroofed, also at intervals, reckoned by one or two 

 hundred years, London has been shaken, still England could not be 

 regarded as an earthquake-producing country. British made earth- 

 quakes may be of rare occurrence, but should there be any relief of 

 seismic strain similar to that of 1883 or 1896 in the synclinal on which 

 our great metropolis stands, we might find as many chimney pots in the 

 streets as there are inhabitants. A suggestion of this kind, however, 

 does not disturb the mind of our ordinary Englishman. Hints 

 respecting the possible instability of his country produce no effect, and 

 he fails to see why he or his government should be called upon to sup- 

 port seismoldgical investigations. Recent earthquakes, have, however, 

 modified his opinion, and although England may be free from earth- 

 quakes he finds he has to insure against and pay for the effects 

 which these disturbances have caused in distant places. By observa- 

 tions on what has stood and what has been destroyed after violent 

 shakings of the ground, and, as the result of investigations together with 

 elaborate and costly experiments carried out entirely in Japan, not 

 only have new methods of construction been formulated, but these 

 have had extensive applications. Experience has shown that the new 

 types of buildings stand whilst the old ones are shattered. At the 

 present moment, Valparaiso, San Francisco, Kingston, and very many 

 other cities, towns and villages, not only in America, but also in 

 Europe and Asia, have by recent earthquakes been reduced to heaps 

 of debris. When these are reconstructed, it is extremely likely that 

 the well-tested rules and methods, the outcome of applied seismology, 

 will not be neglected. 



Seismological investigations have been made, not only for scien- 

 tific reasons, but to minimise the loss of life and property. In con- 



K 2 



