302 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1886. 



and time is illustrated, the foriuer by a map based upon that of Mallet, 

 and the latter by reference to the results of Mallet, Perrey, Schmidt, 

 Fuchs, and others. In discussing the causes of earthquakes the usual 

 theories of steam, vulcanism, chemical action, cosmic influence, are 

 stated, the only conclusion being that the cause is endogenous to our 

 earth, and that solar and lunar influences and barometric fluctuations 

 have small eftect. The last 40 pages are devoted to earth tremors, 

 which escape notice by reason of their small ami)litude; earth pulsa- 

 tions, which iire overlooked on account of the slowness of their period; 

 and earth oscillations, by which are meant such slow changes of level 

 as are illustrated by the well-known temple of Jupiter Serapis. In re- 

 gard to the earth tremors reference is made to the observations of d'Ab- 

 badie at Hendaye, of G. and H. Darwin at Cambridge, of Bertelli and 

 Eossi in Italy, and of the author in Japan. The book is written in a 

 popular style and, while dated 188G, appears to have been completed at 

 least two years earlier, as it does not refer to the most recent work in 

 this dej)artment, even that of ]Mdiu^ himself. 



At the second annual conference of delegates of the " corresponding 

 societies" enrolled in connection with the British Association, Professor 

 Lebour stated that the North of England Mining and Mechanical En- 

 gineers had a committee actively engaged on the connection of earth 

 tremors and mine explosions, and that they were desirous of organizing 

 concerted observations on earth tremors by the corresponding societies. 

 (Nature, xxxv, SO.) 



In the remodelling of the Imperial University of Tokio, with which 

 the Imi)erial College of Engineering is now united, a chair of Seismol- 

 ogy has been founded, and filled by the appointment of Mr. Seikei 

 Sekiya, who has already become known by his previous work iu that 

 science. Japan is thus the first country to recognize the importance 

 of this department of science by assigning to it a separate professor iu 

 its univiM-sity. (Nature, xxxiv, 130.) 



The French Academy appointed MM. Daubree, Fouque, Hebert, 

 Gaudry, and des Cloizeaux as the Commission of Award for the Vail- 

 lant prize, the subject for which was '"to study the influence which 

 the geology of a country, the action of water, or other physical causes 

 might have upon earthquakes." (Compt. Rend., cii, 541.) The prize 

 was awarded to the members of the Frencli Commission on the An- 

 dalusian Eaithquake of December, 1884 (MM. Michel Lev\y, Bertrand, 

 Barrous, Otfret, Kilian and Bergeron), whose reports were referred to 

 in the summary for 1885. They also awarded in the same connection 

 an "encouragement" of 1,000 francs to M. de Montessus, who had 

 passed four years (1881-1885) in San Salvador, and while there had 

 made a careful study of seismism iu its relations to other i)hysical and 

 cosmic phenomena. (Compt. Rend., cm, 1355, 1358.) 



In 1885 the East Indian Section of the Dutch Royal Institution of 

 Engineers published some prizq questions, que of which related to the 



