378 



NATURE 



[Augusi 14, 1879 



negative. It is invariably so in European races, where the 

 differences oscillate between -5° and -39°. In the inferior 

 races it may amount to + 5° ; in adult anthropoids on the other 

 hand, the minimum is found as high as + 32, while in some 

 (Torillas it amounted to + 45. In women the orbito-basilar 

 angle is habitually from 2 to 3 degrees less than in men. 



The decrease in the population of France still continues to excite 

 much speculation. In tome 12, ser- 2, of the Bulhtins will be 

 found a suggestive paper by M. Despres, on the relation 

 between the birth-rate of a country and its enforcement of 

 restrictive enactments intended to diminish the result of public 

 immorality. In comparing Belgium with France a difficult 

 question suggests itself in the fact, that while both countries are 

 under sanitary official supervision, and Belgium next to France 

 has the lowest birth-rate, it has 279 legitimate births against 

 every thousand married women between the ages of 15 and 50, 

 although France has only 174 in the 1,000. The latter has, how 

 ever, the large number of 140 married women of those ages in 

 every 1,000, while the former has only 105 in the 1,000. In 

 England, on the other hand, before the enactment of any 

 sanitary restrictions, 248 legitimate births were registered for 

 every 1,000 married women of the given ages, (the proportion of 

 married women from 15 to 50 being 133 in the 1,000). But 

 while in this country 120 for every 1,000 men marry between the 

 age of 20 and 25, in Belgium only 33, and in France not quite 

 that number, out of every 1,000 men marry at the same age. 

 This later marriage of the men M. Despres regards as an 

 important factor in the lowness of the French birth-rate. 



VOLCANIC PHENOMENA AND EARTH- 

 QUAKES DURING 1878 



'X'HE statistical review of volcanic phenomena during 1878, 



which Prof. Fuchs has recently published, and which forms 

 the continuation of many previous statistical accounts of the 

 same nature (see Nature, voh xv. p. 557, and vol. xviii. p. 241) 

 shows the unusually large number of twelve eruptions in the 

 course of the year. Most of them occurred in remote localities 

 and gave evidence of the activity of volcanoes which were 

 generally but little known, and which are all difficult of access, 

 it is true, however, that Moimt Vesuvius also, the last eruption of 

 which had taken place in 1872, but which already during 1877 had 

 shown symptoms of the re-awakening of the volcanic process, 

 again entered into a period of activity on April 20, 1S78. The 

 mountain ejected ashes, frequent slight shocks occurred, a thick 

 column of smoke ascended, and at the end of September a scanty 

 flow of lava took place. This increased during the night of Sep- 

 tember 22-23 ^™^ '1*^ \&\3. descended as far as the Atrio del 

 Cavallo ; but afterwards the volcanic activity sank down into the 

 ordinary solfatarastate, which was only interrupted by little 

 periodical explosions on October II, and by the flow of little 

 streams of lava from November i to November 9. 



At the southern point of South America active and hitherto 

 unknown volcanoes were repeatedly seen by passing ships, viz. 

 on January 10 and 18 ; one of them is situated upon the middle 

 island in the English Narrows, the other on the South American 

 continent in about 48* 56' lat. S. ; this one was conspicuous by a 

 majestic column of smoke, ejected from a high snow-clad moun- 

 tain, and rising to a height of some 300 metres. 



At the same time a great eruption occurred in the island of Tanna, 

 the well-known and very active volcanic island in the archi- 

 pelago of the New Hebrides. On January 10, at 10 a.m., between 

 the so-called Sulphur Bay and the old crater, a new eruption 

 cone formed ; the outbreak was accompanied by a mighty tidal 

 wave which inundated a great part of the island. In spite of its 

 violence the eraption lasted only a .short time, but on February 

 4, a second outbreak followed which also did great damage. 



.Simultaneously yet another eruption hajjpened. Its seat was 

 the large island of Birara, in the group of New Britain. The 

 northern part of the island was completely devastated, and its 

 coasts rendered inaccessible through enormous masses of pumice 

 stone, which covered the sea for many miles. Formerly, no 

 volcano had been known there. We have repeatedly referred 

 to the masses of floating pumice stone in the vicinity of the 

 Solomon Islands, throughlwhich, as Captain Harrington reported, 

 ships had to force their way for two or three days. It is very 

 probable that this pumice stone originated from the eruption on 

 Birara, and not from some submarine eruption, as was generally 

 supposed at the time of the occurrence. It is true that there are 

 two volcanoes in the Solomon Islands, the Semoya and the 



Lammat upon the island of Guadalcanar, but from neither wer« 

 any eruptions reported during 1878. 



The third eruption of February, took place from the volcano 

 Isluga in South America (lat. 19° 10', S), which mountain had 

 been inactive since 1869. The outbreak was accompanied by a 

 fearful earthquake, and so great were the masses of lava ejected 

 that the villages of Cariquima, Carima, Sotoca, and Chiapa, all 

 situated at more than five leagues' distance from the volcano, 

 were completely destroyed by the incandescent streams. 



Smaller volcanic eruptions occurred from Mount Hecla (from 

 February 27, to the end of March), from the Asamayama in Japan, 

 from the Cotopaxi near Quito (in October), from the Tepaco, 

 the Sitna, and the Isalco in San Salvador. The eruptions in 

 the Aleutian and Society Islands were of greater importance. 

 In the volcanic series of the Aleutian i.Jands, the volcanoes on 

 Amukta, Tscheguluk, and the Vsevidok volcano (almost 2,Sco 

 metres high) on Umnak were in eruption. In the Society 

 Islands, according to the report of Captain Evers, the islands of 

 Raiatea, and Borabora were completely devastated by tb^ 

 action of volcanoes. 



At the end of the list of lava-eruptions Dr. Fuchs records the 

 great mud-eruption of one of the well-known mud-volcanoes 

 near Paterno in Sicily. After repeated shocks of earthquake in 

 the province of Catania spreading over two months, this eniption 

 began on December 10, numerous craters ejecting streams of 

 mud with great noise. Several of these craters were continu- 

 ously active, as the mud was of little consistency, and freely 

 permitted the ascending gases to escape. The others had explo- 

 sions from time to time, as the crater basin was filled with much 

 thicker mud, which prevented the gases from passing upwards 

 until their tension was sufficiently high, and they ejected the mud 

 in high rays. At the end of the year this mud-eruption was still 

 progressing with unabated force. 



The number of eai-thquakes reported during 1878 amounts to 

 103. But amongst these there are many complete earthquake- 

 periods during which shocks and oscillations lasted with short 

 intervals for hours, days, and even for several w eeks in the same 

 locality. If we would or could count all the separate shocks which 

 occurred, a very high total would be reached. Thus in the com- 

 paratively unimportant earthquake of Zengg twenty shocks were 

 counted, and in the great earthquake of Terapaca in the night 

 of January 23 no less than forty shocks, while the oscillations 

 lasted here almost without interruption until April 12. An 

 earthquake on the island of Tanna (New Hebrides) lasted for 

 four weeks, and in the province of Catania the oscillations suc- 

 ceeded each other almost without interruption from October 4 

 to November 19. 



The earthquakes were most frequent in winter and autumn, 

 thirty-nine occurring in winter, twenty-six in autumn, and nine- 

 teen each in summer and spring. 



The most violent and most destructive of all these phenomena 

 happened on January 23 in that district of Peru and Bolivia in 

 which the terrible earthquake of 1 868 took place. The province 

 of Terapaca suffered more than any other. Here, with the 

 earthquake of May 9, 1877, which iu violence was hardly sur- 

 passed by that of 1868, a great and considerably extended period 

 of frequently-recurring oscillations had begun, amongst which 

 the earthquake of January 23, 1878, was prominent by its par- 

 ticular force. At Iquique it began at 7.55 p.m., and the shocks 

 continued during the whole night. As usual, the subsequent 

 tidal-wave did still greater damage than the earthquake itself, 

 and this was particularly the case at Arequipa, Pica, Mantilla, 

 Pisaqua, Arica, and Terapaca. 



The earthquake on October 2, in the southern part of the 

 republic of San Salvador, was also very violent. In the town of 

 Incuapa almost all the houses were destroyed, and many of the 

 inhabitants perished. In the vicinity a number of villages disap- 

 peared entirely. The motion of the soil was first undulatory and 

 ended with a terrible shock. 



Of European earthquakes the following must be mentioned 

 specially : — 



On January 28, about noon, an earthquake shook the north- 

 western part of France and the south of England. It was par- 

 ticularly tlistinct in Normandy, at Rouen, Plavre, and Dieppe. 

 Even in Paris the shock was so considerable that several houses 

 were endangered. In England it occurred between 11. 45 and 

 11.50 A.M., and was observed at Greenwich, London, Brighton, 

 Southampton, Cowes, and several other jjaces. 



Repeatedly shocks were felt in north-western Switzerland 

 and at the south-west corner of the Black Forest. The first and 

 more marked phenomenon happened on January 16, and con- 



