September 30, 1920] 



NATURE 



'65 



■ ind the others, which are not volatile without decom- 

 ^^ition, furnish water, furfurol, carbon, etc. 

 In the molecule of cellulose the various groups are 

 l^robably united together in consequence of the open- 

 ing of the ring at an oxygen atom which does not 

 form the furan rinjj, and in this way the cellulose 

 molecule, forming a vast cyclic network, mav bear 

 some analogy to those of the albuminoids, in which 

 the linking agents are nitrogen atoms. 



Joseph Black and Belfast. 



UNDER the title of "Jos<'ph Black: His Belfast 

 Friends and Family Connections " Mr. Henry 

 Kiddell has recently published in the Proceedings of 

 the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society 

 (vol. iii., 1919-20, p. 49) an interesting account of 

 Joseph Black's connection with Belfast. As is well 

 known, the famous chemist was born at Bordeaux, 

 where his father, John Black, was a factor and wine 

 merchant, but his ancestors for many generations back 

 were Ulstermen, and he himself received his school 

 education either in the old Latin School in Belfast, 

 endowed by Earl Donegall in 1666, or at the hands of 

 a Mr. Sprott, a schoolmaster of repute in that city. 

 Up to the age of twelve Black was educated by his 

 mother, Margaret Gordon, who is described as a 

 woman of great force of character and many accom- 

 plishments. She was the daughter of Robert Gordon, 

 a merchant of Aberdeen, and was mar/ied to John 

 Black in 17 16, by whom she had issue eight sons and 

 five daughters, Joseph Black, who was born in 1728, 

 ing the fourth son. 



I he Blacks were of Scottish extraction, and were 



I to be descended from a member of the Clan 



mont who was known :is Gillie-dhu on account of 



his remarkably black hair. Some of his sons, on the 



invitation of James 1., passed over to Ulster, which 



had been laid waste and depopulated by the wars 



among the Irish chiefs and their clans. Tlx'ir 



■endants, or some of them, settled in Belfast and 



,:licis«'d their name to Black. One of them, John 



' k, th«> great-grandfather of the chemist, fought 



.1 trooper aj.'ainst Cromwell. His son, also 



in Black, born in 16821 was a burgess of Belfast, 



I had a family of five sons, alt engaged in 



•■rchandysinge " in various parts of the Continent. 



■ various members married into some of the lead- 



I'lster families — the Eccles, Wilsons, Banks, 



■ Iges. (Markes, and others. Jane Eccles, the grand- 



iher of the chemist, was the daughter of John 



les of Cranmore. who entertained \Villi.im HI. on 



way from Carrick to Orogheda. Th*- ch<'mist's 



■ St brother, lohn. married Jane Hanks, a member 

 DOC of the best-known families in Belfast. One 

 their granddaughters, Maria, became the wife of 

 ;d Downs, and from them sprang two t'irls, .\nn 

 ! Charlotte, who married respectively Lord Clonmel 

 I Lord Seaton. Isobel Black, the sister of the 



mist, married James Burnett, of Aberdeen; their 

 ighter became the wife of .Adam Ferguson, the 

 ' al philosoplvT and colleague, intimate friend, and 

 sin of Joseph Black. A descendant of one of his 

 T sisters. Katherine, became the wife of Prince 

 Ideck and Pyrmont. 



Two of Joseph's brothers, Samuel and Georpe. 

 irned to Belfast and took a prominent part in the 

 niripal life of the town, hokling the office of 



- 'vereign " (mayor) between ihem no fewer than 

 • n times between 1772 and >789. 

 ! )seph Black, after a t'ooti grounding in classics 

 I malhematirs. left Belfast for r,l.isi.'n\v in bis 

 lileenlh year, entering the Uni^ 

 Np. 2^1'" vnr io(^1 



considerably older than the usual run of matriculants 

 at that period. He came almost immediately under 

 the influence of two remarkable men, Dick, professor 

 of natural philosophy, and Cullen, professor of medi- 

 cine and lecturer on chemistry. The fact that Black 

 was considerably senior to the majority of his fellow- 

 students may have induced Cullen to offer him the 

 position of lecture-assistant, and it was probably this 

 fortunate circumstance that determined his career. 



The great chemist, who died in 1799, was never 

 married, and left no immediate descendants. It is 

 evident from this short statement that he belonged to 

 a family of noteworthv menial peculiarities, many 

 members of which were characterised by remarkable 

 powers and capacity. Joseph Black, so far as is 

 known, is the only one who showed any striking pre- 

 dilection towards scientific pursuits, and there are 

 special circumstances in his case which may serve to 

 explain the direction of his inclinations. If. as the 

 late Sir Francis Galton contended, high reputation is 

 a pretty accurate test of high ability, Joseph Black 

 certainly ennobled his ancestry. But an e.xaminntion 

 of their individual history seems to show that he 

 is no less a debtor to those who went tx'fore him, 

 and that his eminence is in no small degree due to 

 I qualities implanted in him by his I'lster upbringing 

 ind associations. T. R. Thorpe. 



The Sakura-jima Eruption of 1914. 



PROF. O.MORI has recently made two additions to 

 his valuable series of memoirs on the eruption 

 of the Sakura-jima (South Japan) on January 12, 

 1914. The fourth memoir deals with the continued 

 changes of elevation in the neighbourhood of the 

 volcano, and the fifth with th<' numerous earthquakes 

 which preceded and followed the eruption (Bull. Imp. 

 Earthq. Inves. Com., vol. viii., 1920, pp. 323-51 and 

 353-466). Until 1914 the .Sakura-jimn was an island 

 in the Bay of Kagoshima, the inner bay to the north 

 of it being a basin 12^ miles long from east to west 

 and 7i miles wide. .\ comparison of two series of 

 levels made a few years before the eruption and in 

 .\pril and Mav, 1915, revealed a depression of not 

 less than 20 in. in the northern part of the bay, and 

 of from I ft. to 5^ ft. round the coast of the former 

 island, the centre of which was elevated in two places 

 by as much as 30 ft. and 41 ft. In the winter of 

 1918-19 a new series of levels was made along the 

 west and north coasts of tlie bay, from which it is 

 seen that the depression of the inner bay gave place 

 to an <>lev.ition, the mean rise from February, 1915. 

 to December, 1918, being about 4 in. In 1917 a 

 series of soundings was also made in the bay, and 

 these show that there are three depressions (of maxi- 

 mum depth 85, 113, and 79 fathoms), the first being 

 separated from the others by a submarine ridge 

 running north from the volcano, and ap^Kirently <lue 

 I to the eruption* of .\.i). 764, 146R--76. and 1779- 

 Comparing the new soundings with those made in 

 1906, there are seen to be three areas of fresh depres- 

 sion (from 3 to 4 fathoms) coinciding wilh the three 

 depressions, and two areas of new elevation, the 

 more important one (of 3 fathoms) Ix-ing near the 

 submarine ridge. Prof. Omori <'stimates that the 

 total resultant depression of the district amounts to 

 about one-quarter of a cubic mile, and the volume of 

 lava and ashes ejected to slichllv mop- than one. half 

 of a cubic mile, and he suggests that this differenw 

 mav account for the defect of gravity .sometimes 

 observed in the neighbourhood of n volcano. 



The records of the Sakura-jima earthquakes at 

 Kagoshima (6 J tniles from the volcano), Nagasaki 



