Nov. 7, 1889] 



NATURE 



of the coal-tar colour industry has, we think, not been 

 without its influence on the development of this branch 

 of applied organic chemistry in this country. Dr. 

 Knecht's translation merits a place on the bookshelf of 

 every person engaged in the manufacture and use of the 

 so-called coal-tar colours. 



A Bibliography of Geodesy. By J. Howard Gore, B.S., 

 Ph.D. (Washington : Government Printing Office, 

 1889.) 



This valuable work forms Appendix No. 16 to the 1887 

 Report of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, 

 and is another example of the disinterested energy dis- 

 played by our Transatlantic cousins in scientific matters. 

 With great perseverance, and at the cost of much time 

 and trouble, Mr. Gore personally explored thirty-four of the 

 principal libraries of America and Europe, and numerous 

 minor libraries by proxy ; and, in addition, he checked 

 and completed many of his references by correspondence 

 with the living authors of both continents. The extent of 

 his labours is shown by the four hundred columns of 

 references, and short remarks where the title alone is not 

 sufficiently explanatory. An alphabetical arrangement is 

 adopted, and this includes authors, abbreviations, and 

 subjects. 



It is gratifying to note that our own country, besides 

 the assistance rendered by its libraries, lends its aid to 

 such an important work in the shape of a manuscript 

 supplement by Colonel Herschel to his pendulum biblio- 

 graphy, which was placed unreservedly at Mr. Gore's 

 disposal, through the courtesy of the Royal Society. 

 After the offers of publication made by various institu- 

 tions, including the International Geodetic Association at 

 Berlin, no further testimony to Mr. Gore's fitness for the 

 work is needed, and the compiler is justly proud "to see 

 the results of his labours issuing from an institution of his 

 own country, which throughout the worldis the recognized 

 advance guard in geodetic science." 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



{^Tht Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents . Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part oj NATURE, 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. ] 



The Method of Quarter Squares. 



I OMITTED any reference to Leslie in my review of Mr. 

 Blater's table (Nature, vol. xl. p. 573), as ] have never sup- 

 posed that he was an independent discoverer of the method, or 

 an independent calculator of a table, of quarter squares. I have 

 eferred to his table in my Report on Mathematical Tables 

 Brit. Assoc. Report, 1873, p. 23) ; and the passage quoted by 

 Prof. Carey Foster (p. 593) is given in full in the preface to Mr. 

 Blater's table. It seems to me that the words in question — 

 " This application of a table of quarter squares, as it is derived 

 from the simplest principles, might have readily occurred to a 

 mathematician ; yet I have nowhere seen it brought into prac- 

 tical use till, last summer, I met with, at Paris, a small book by 

 Antoine Voisin, printed in 1817 " — do not indicate an inde- 

 pendent discovery ; and this view is confirmed by the fact that, 

 in the first edition of the " Philosophy of Arithmetic" (1817), 

 Leslie makes no mention of quarter squares. It was only in 

 the second edition (1820), after having seen Voisin's work in the 

 previous year, that he added, at the end of the volume, an ac- 

 count of the method, and a table extending to 2000. The table 

 was copied, I presume, from Voisin, as Leslie does not claim it 

 as the result of his own calculation. In the British Association 

 Report I have described it as "reprinted from Voisin," and 

 have pointed out that it did not appear in the first edition. In 

 the preface to Mr. Blater's letter it is described as "an extract 

 from Voisin's table." Although we may, I think, infer, almost 



with certainty, that the table is only a reprint,^ it is to be 

 regretted that Leslie did not say so explicitly. 



J. W. L. Glaisher. 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, October 26. 



Darwinism. 



Mr. Romanes states that it is "absurd" to call his essay on 

 physiological selection an elaborate (I said "laborious") attack 

 upon Mr. Darwin's theory of the origin of species. In that 

 essay I find these words (p. 345), " the theory of natural selection 

 has been misnamed : it is not strictly speaking a theory of the 

 origin of species" ; and on p. 403, " the theory of physiological 

 selection [i.e. Dr. Romanes's theory] has this advantage over 

 every other theory that has ever been propounded on the origin 

 of species" ; and again, "the problem of the origin of species 

 which, as shown in the preceding paper [viz. the laboiious essay], 

 his [Mr. Darwin's] theory of natural selection serves only in 

 small part to explain." 



On the other hand, Mr. Darwin entitled his great work, "The 

 Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the preserva- 

 tion of favoured races in the struggle for life." He considered 

 his theory of natural selection to be a theory of the origin of 

 species. Mr. Romanes says it is not. I say that this is an attack 

 on Mr. Darwin's theory, and about as simple and direct an attack 

 as possible. Why Mr. Romanes wishes us to believe that he 

 did not attack Mr. Darwin's theory it is difficult to conceive. 

 That he should hope to persuade anyone that it is absurd to call 

 his essay an attack on Mr. Darwin's theory when this is what it 

 distinctly professes to be is curious. I trust you will not permit 

 an empty discussion on this matter, but leave it to your readers 

 to find out by reference to the Proc. Linn. Soc, vol. xix., where 

 the absurdity exists. E. Ray Lankester. 



42 Half-moon Street, November i. 



Record of British Earthquakes. 



Will you allow me to ask your readers to help me in com- 

 piling notes of the earthquakes felt in this country during the 

 present and following years? 



Mr. Mallet's great Catalogue of all recorded earthquakes ends, 

 as is well known, with the year 1842. Previously to this, Mr. 

 David Milne had published a series of papers on the earthquakes 

 of Great Britain in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal 

 (vols. xxxi. to xxxvi. for the years 1841-44). These papers, 

 which are of very great value, bring down our record to the end 

 of August 1843. In recent years we have had the Catalogues 

 of Prof. J. P. O'Reilly (Trans. Roy. Irish Acad., vol. xxviii. 

 pp. 285-316 and 489-708) and the late Mr. W. Roper (published 

 by T. Bell, Observer Office, Lancaster). The latter is a useful 

 chronological list of shocks felt during the Christian era, down 

 to February 10, 1889 ; but, except in a few cases, it is little 

 more than a list. Prof. O'Reilly's important catalogues are 

 arranged alphabetically according to the localities affected, and 

 do not pretend to give detailed information with reference to the 

 shocks themselves. 



To make our seismic record more complete, I propose, there- 

 fore, to compile a descriptive list of British shocks noticed in 

 newspapers and scientific journals from the time at which Mr. 

 Milne's Catalogue closes down to the end of the year 1888 ; and 

 I should be very grateful if your readers can in any way help 

 me in this work. 



What I wish particularly to ask for, however, is information 

 relating to the shocks of the present and future years. For our 

 knowledge of British earthquakes we must at present rely to a 

 great extent on newspaper accounts ; and these accounts, which 

 for some points are fairly trustworthy, become difficult of access 

 in after years. If any of your readers are willing to assist me 

 in preserving these notices in a convenient and systematic form, 

 may I ask if they would be good enough to send, to the address 

 below, the names and dates of newspapers, and more especially 

 local ones, in which any descriptions, however short, are given of 

 British shocks ? It is hardly necessary to say that any other notes, 

 communicated by those who have felt the shocks or observed 

 their effects, would be of great value, and would be most thank- 

 fully received. 



The days are past for compiling earthquake catalogues for the 



* After quoting the full title of Voisin's table, Leslie refers to his own 

 table as "the specimen which I have given." 



