272 REPORT — 1851. 



tenderness of touch, the sense of hearing is rendered unnecessary. Anatomy 

 accordingly demonstrates only the obscurest rudiments of an organ ot vision, 

 while that of hearing has eluded the scrutiny of the minutest examination. 

 Is it not to be marvelled at that these humble beings should see without eyes, 

 hear without ears, and smell without a nose? It is not affirmed that this is 

 literally and entirely true, but it is exact to a degree enough to prove the 

 wondrous manner in which the sense of touch is made to supersede all the 



otliGP senses 



Whether progressing on the solid surface, or moving through water, or 

 tunneling the sand, advancing or retreating in its tube, the Annelid performs 

 muscular feats distinguished at once for their complexity and harmony In 

 grace of coil the little worm excels the serpent. In regularity of march he 

 thousand-footed Nereid out-rlvals the Centipede. 1 he leaf-armed Phyilo- 

 doce swims with greater beauty of mechanism than the fish, and the vulgar 

 earth-worm sha.nes the mole in the exactitude and skill of its subterranean 

 operations. Why then should " the humble worm " have remained so long 

 without a historian? Is tiie care, the wisdom, the love, the pat^ernal solici- 

 tude of the Almighty not legible in the surpassing orgamsm, the ingenious 

 architectures, the individual and social habits, the adaptation of structure to 

 the physical conditions of existence of these "degraded beings? Do not 

 their habitations display His care, their instincts His wisdom, the^v mernment 

 His love, their vast specific diversities His solicitous and inscrutable Provi- 

 dence ? 



Second Report on the Facts of Earthquake Phenomena. 

 By Robert Mallet, C.E., M.K.l.A. 



In mv previous Report upon the Facts of Earthquake Pliaenomena, printed 

 in the Transactions of the British Association for 1850, I stated in conclu- 

 sion my hope, with the permission of the Association, to supply in a second 

 report answers to five desiderata which I named. , c ., 



The present is an endeavour to fulfill this with respect to four out of these 



five, which were — • „ , , c ^u „«r^o+ 



1st. A complete catalogue or chronology of earthquakes from the earliest 



times to the present day, discussed with reference to time and to 



distribution over the earth's surface. 



2nd. Earthquake maps founded upon this discussion. 



3rd. As complete a bibliography of earthquake literature as might be 



collected. /locrix:,^ 



4th. An account of ray own experimental admeasurements now (lb50; in 



pro'rress, of the rate of earthquake-wave transit, through some ot the 



rocky and incoherent formations of the earth's surface. 

 5tli An account of the progress made in the construction of a selt-re- 



o-istering seismometer, with the aid of the British Association. 

 It wiU be most convenient to proceed with the fourth desideratum in the 



above list first. ^ ^ . ... ,• y r ^.^ 



The views promulgated by me in 1846 (Trans. R.I. Acad.), in which for the 

 first time I sought to connect into a systematic whole, the three grand classes 

 of phffinomenaTof which (more or less varied) every earthquake consists, and 

 to frame them into a consistent theory, upon the basis that " an earthquake is 



