December 6, 1917] 



NATURE 



265 



OVR BOOKSHELF. 



iivs of Physical Science: A Reference-hook. 

 By Dr. E. F. Northrup. Pp. vii + 210. (Phila- 

 delphia and London : J. B. Lippincott Co., n.d.) 

 Price 85. 6d. net. 

 Those who at any time have had to look up the 

 laws of some branch of physics rapidly must have 

 felt very seriously the absence of any pocket- 

 book of the type so much used by engineers in 

 which those laws were briefly and clearly stated. 

 They will be in a position to appreciate Dr. 

 E. F. Northrup 's book, in which the principal 

 laws are summarised. In a book which so 

 obviously fills a gap in our literature it is perhaps 

 a little ung^rateful to point out minor defects. The 

 contrast between the thoroughness of the section 

 devoted to current electricity and the incomplete- 

 ness and lack of unity of some of the other sec- 

 tions is very marked. On p. 45, for example, the 

 author speaks first of the "force" of a musical 

 sound, and then of the "intensity" of a sound. 

 On p. 47 the velocity of sound is given in terms of 

 quantities expressed in gravitational units, while 

 on p. 51, in another formula for the velocity, 

 tensions are expressed in dynes and masses in 

 g^rains (probably a misprint for grams). On p. 61 

 heat energy other than translatory energy is 

 ignored, while on p. 68 many of the general 

 properties of isothermal surfaces and of lines of 

 flow are given as if they held for a point source 

 only. While in magnetism there is a partial 

 definition of unit pole, in electrostatics there is no 

 definition of unit quantity of electricity, and 

 formulae are given sometimes with, sometimes 

 without, the dielectric constant appearing. In 

 the light section the laws of refraction include the 

 statement that the incident and refracted rays are 

 on opposite sides of the normal, while the laws of 

 reflection contain no corresponding statement. 

 Ag"ain, the relative sizes of object and image 

 formed by a spherical mirror are stated on p. 168 

 as if the only possible objects and images were 

 lines perpendicular to the axis of the mirror. In 

 a second edition it is to be hoped that these defects 

 will be remedied. 





The Student's Handbook to the University and 

 Colleges of Cambridge. • Sixteenth edition. 

 Pp. vii + 703. (Cambridge : At the University 

 Press, r9i7,) Price 65. net. 

 The present edition of this useful handbook has 

 been revised to June 30 last. Three important 

 additions only have been necessary in this issue, 

 namely, the regulations for the new English 

 Tripos, the new regulations for the Modern and 

 Medieval Languages Tripos, and certain modifica- 

 tions of the conditions under which prize exercises 

 are to be sent in. The war has occasioned further 

 temporary emergency legislation, and the part of 

 it affecting undergraduates is duly recorded here. 

 The book has been compiled from authentic 

 sources, and its helpfulness to students at Cam- 

 bridge is undeniable. 



NO. 2510, VOL. 100] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed 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 of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous communications.] 



Earthquake in Burma. 



I An earthquake of some intensity was felt in parts of 

 Lower Burma in the early morning of July 5 last, when 

 the moon was in total ec}ipse. The only damage re- 

 ported was at a famous pagoda at Pegu, a town forty- 

 six miles distant by rail from" Rangoon, an ancient 

 structure held in great veneration by all Buddhists, 

 and towering 324 ft. over all surrounding buildings. 

 Its golden cone, or umbrella, studded with jewels to 

 the value of many thousand pounds sterling, was 

 shaken down, destroying several smaller pagodas at 

 its base. Fortunately, there seems to have been no 

 loss of life, for the fall happened about 4.40 a.m., when 

 most people were in bed. On festival or fast days 

 there are often thousands of visitors in the precincts 

 of the pagoda, for worshippers come from hundreds 

 of miles distant to this famous shrine, and though 

 the population of the town is less than 20,000, there 

 are often 150,000 there on such occasions. The pagoda 

 trustees and Buddhist elders at once took steps and 

 formed a committee to supervise the removal of the 

 ddbris and to recover the valuable jewels which had 

 fallen, and in this the civil and police officials rendered 

 every assistance. The Lieutenant-Governor, directly 

 he heard of the disaster, telegraphed to the Deputy- 

 Commissioner : — " His Honour is much distressed to 

 hear of the damage done by the earthquake to your 

 beautiful Shwemawdaw Pagoda, and would be glad if 

 you would kindly convey his sympathy to the pagoda 

 trustees." The trustees wired the following reply : — 

 "We thank his Honour most sincerely for his telegram 

 expressing sympathy at damage done to our beautiful 

 pagoda. Some valuables discovered among the debris." 



The largest diamond, which was placed on the 

 top of the golden umbrella, has not yet been 

 recovered, and as Pegu has some thousands of 

 non-Buddhists amongst its population, fears are enter- 

 tained that many valuable jewels may get into dis- 

 honest hands. 



The effect of the disaster has, of course, not been 

 wholly bad for everyone. The Burma Railway has 

 had its passenger service from all parts of its line 

 strained to the uttermost. From 5000 to 10,000 people 

 beyond the ordinary traffic are now daily arriving at 

 the town. Taxi-cab and bullock-cart owners are 

 making small fortunes carrying visitors to and 

 from the railway station to the pagoda, situated about 

 a mile distant. These visitors, of course, require food 

 and lodging, so that money to an extent previously 

 unknown, except in holiday or festival time, is now 

 daily circulating in the place. 



Pegu is a very ancient town, and was formerly 

 the capital of an independent kingdom. It is men- 

 tioned by the first European travellers to Burma in 

 the seventeenth century as a place of great wealth 

 and very populous. It is now one of the largest rice- 

 producing districts in Burma. It will not be very long 

 j before its famous pagoda is restored to all its former 

 I magnificence, for, although the Burmese are not very 

 familiar or appreciative of co-6peration in mundane 

 transactions, all Buddhists are willing to spend money 

 on such a work of "merit" as the restoration or re- 

 building of a celebrated pagoda like the one at Pegu, 

 and putting jewels or valuables at such a height In the 

 air that nobodv can see them. This characteristic 



