Jan. 26, 1888] 



NA TORE 



297 



Hitherto the mark values of all subjects, except mathe- 

 matics, have been equal in the Woolwich examination, and 

 free choice of subjects has been permitted to candidates. ' 

 This has been fair to young men of different orders of ; 

 ability ; it must have secured officers of varied powers, and | 

 has satisfied the schools by leaving them free to do for each 

 boy that which was best for him. In one respect the new 

 scheme is better than the old— viz. in the grouping of the 

 physical science subjects. But with such a bribe as will 

 now be oft'ered for Latin and modern languages, we cannot 

 think that it will often be worth while even for boys of i 

 more than average scientific capacity to adopt the study 

 of science if they desire to enter Woolwich. Jt is evident 

 that, other things being equal, those who do so will come 

 out lower in the listof those who succeed, and be more likely 

 to find themselves amongst those who have failed, than will 

 be the case with such as are of equal ability in the study ; 

 of languages. We do not believe that it is the intention ! 

 of the War Office authorities thus to partly bar the way 

 into the scientific branches of the service against young 

 men of more than average promise in the experimental 

 sciences, subjects that will afterwards form a very im- 

 portant a part of their work in the Royal Military 

 Academy; and we trust that leaders in science, and the re- 

 presentatives of those schools which are doing their best 

 for their scientific boys, as well as for their unscientific 



boys, will not fail to unite in calling attention to the 

 inevitable results of the final adoption of the present 

 scheme. The reception that such representations met 

 with in 1884, and the position accorded to physical science 

 in the course of study for the cadets after having entered 

 Woolwich, cause us to feel sure that such representa- 

 tions will not be without effect, especially if they be not 

 too long delayed. 



A MODEL OF AN EARTHQUAKE. 



T N the latest part of the Journal of the Science College 

 -*• of the University of Tokio, Prof. Sekiya describes a 

 very curious and remarkable model he has made to 

 exhibit the manner in which a point on the earth's surface 

 moves during an earthquake. Readers who have followed 

 the recent progress of seismometry in Japan are aware 

 that the motion which is recorded at an earthquake 

 observatory is a prolonged series of twists and wriggles of 

 the most complicated kind, so that the path pursued by a 

 point on the surface of the soil has been aptly compared 

 to the form taken by a long hank of string when loosely 

 ravelled together and thrown down in a confused heap. 

 Prof Sekiya has taken advantage of a very complete 

 earthquake record obtained by him with a set of Prof. 



Professor Sekiya's Model of an Earthquake. 



Ewing's seismographs to follow out this path step by step, 

 and to represent it, in a permanent form, by means of 

 stiff copper wire. The earthquake he has modelled in 

 this way took place on January 15, 1887, and was 

 imusually severe, for Japan. It has been already de- 

 scribed in Nature (vol. xxxvi. p. 107), and we have 

 given there a copy of the seismographic record by 

 help of which the model has been constructed. The 

 seismogram shows the vertical displacement and two 

 rectangular components of the horizontal displacement, 

 instant by instant, throughout the disturbance. 



It was only necessary to go through the laborious task 

 of compounding the three displacements in order to find 

 the actual path. This, Prof Sekiya has done for the first 

 seventy-two seconds of the earthquake^a period which 

 embraces all the most interesting features, although large 

 movements in a horizontal plane continued for a minute 

 more, and small movements for a still longer time. 



After the seventy-second second, however, the vertical 

 component of motion had virtually disappeared, so that 

 the later part of the disturbance might be represented 

 by a curve drawn on a horizontal plane. To avoid con- 

 fusion, the model (a sketch of which is given above) is 

 constructed in three parts : the first and second parts each 

 refer to twenty seconds, the third to thirty-two seconds. 

 The parts are mounted together on a lacquered stand 

 3 feet long, genuinely Japanese as to its legs, as the 



sketch will show. The model represents the absolute 

 motion of the ground magnified fifty times. Little metal 

 labels are attached to the wire to mark successive seconds 

 of time, from o, where the shock begins, to 72, where the 

 model ends. 



Prof Seki) .^ is to be congratulated on his patience and 

 skill. The model will serve to show at a glance the real 

 character and enormous complexity of earthquake motion ; 

 it may also serve to open the eyes of seismologists of the 

 older school to the perfection to which earthquake measure- 

 ment has now been brought. We learn byajapanese adver- 

 tisement that a native firm (Seirensha and Co., Tokio) has 

 undertaken to sell copies of Prof Sekiya's model, lacquered 

 stand and all, at a price so low that it should induce ninny 

 private persoits, not to speak of curators of museums and 

 others officially interested in scientific novelties, to pos- 

 sess themselves of this pretty and instructive Japanese 

 " curio." 



ANTON DE BARY. 



ON January 19, after a painful illness, died Anton De 

 Bary, for many years the Professor of Botany in 

 Strassburg. He had been suffering for some time since 

 his visit to this country in September, and had undergone 

 an operation which entailed the removal of parts of tha 

 face, but he did not recover. 



