SEISMOLOGY 178 



SEISMOLOGY : SUBTERRANEAN TEMPERATURES 



The support which the Association has for so 

 long afforded to the study of seismology was indis- 

 solubly connected down to 1913 with the name of 

 John Milne (1850-1913). Two committees, the one 

 for studying earth tremors generally, and the other 

 for investigating the earthquake and volcanic phe- 

 nomena of Japan, were used in 1895, with their 

 respective secretaries, C. Davison and Milne, as joint 

 secretaries of the new committee. Milne, whose life 

 interest was formed by his experience of Japanese 

 earthquakes in 1876 and following years, and his 

 desire, in great measure successful, to mitigate their 

 destructive effects, established his famous seismo- 

 logical observatory at Shide, Isle of Wight, after his 

 return to England in 1895, and also a series of ob- 

 serving stations covering a great part of the world, 

 through which he was able to study the ' world- 

 shaking ' earthquakes which were his chief interest. 

 For many years the cost, apart from the help rendered 

 by the Association, fell upon himself ; and as a piece 

 of pioneer work this of Milne's is unsurpassed among 

 those to which the Association has lent its aid. It 

 has been maintained since his death, and his own 

 liberality has been in some measure replaced from 

 other official sources. The seismological station has 

 been re-established at Oxford, since the premises at 

 Shide ceased to be available. 



The work on subterranean temperatures, for which 

 grants were made at intervals from 1837 to 1857, 

 was carried out with instruments belonging to the 

 Association. This work was actually set on foot by 

 J. D. Forbes, who in 1832 had presented one of those 



