September i, 1898J 



NATURE 



421 



to know, and thus presented to the student a comprehensive 

 account of disease in a series of authoritative monographs. As 

 a benefactor to the city of Philadelphia Prof. Pepper's actions 

 M'ere almost innumerable. He gave to the University the 

 William Pepper Laboratory of Clinical Medicine in memory of 

 his father ; he inaugurated a system of commercial museums, to 

 be connected with other museums in different parts of the 

 country, wherein people might see specimens of the produce of 

 all parts of the world ; he secured immense donations for the 

 Philadelphia Public Art Gallery, and he founded the Free 

 Library. This by no means exhausts the list of Prof. Pepper's 

 public works, and in hin* Philadelphia is deploring one of the 

 «nost generous as well as one of the most distinguished of her 

 sons, while the medical world has to mourn the loss of an 

 enlightened man of science, a wise teacher, and a liberal leader. 



The Indian Government has decided to send exhibits from 

 the Forest and Geological departments to the Paris Exhibition, 

 at a cost of about 3000/. 



We regret to see the announcement that Mr. E. E. Glanville, 

 of Trinity College, an assistant to Mr. Marconi; has met with 

 his death by falling over a cliflf three hundred feet high, at 

 Rathlin Island, off the Antrim coast where he was engaged in 

 experiments in wireless telegraphy. 



Much interest was excited among the zoologists of the 

 International Congress at Cambridge last week by the announce- 

 ment of the discovery of the "first known Hyracoid form of the 

 Tertiary formation.^' The skull upon which this important 

 addition to our knowledge of the Mammalia is based was 

 obtained in Samos, and belongs to the Stuttgardt Museum. It 

 will be described by Prof. Osborn, of New York. 



A Reuter telegram from St. Johns states that the steamer 

 Hope has arrived there from Greenland, having transferred 

 Lieutenant Peary and party to the steamer Windward at Port 

 Foulke. The latter vessel sailed on August 13 for Sherrard- 

 Osborne Fiord, her destination, having taken on board sixty 

 dogs, sixty walruses, and ten natives of North Greenland. It 

 has taken enough provisions for three years. 



The ninth annual general meeting of the Institution of 

 Mining Engineers will be held in Birmingham on September 13, 

 14 and 15, under the presidency of Mr. A. M. Chambers. 

 Among the papers to be read at the meeting are: — "The 

 Shelve and Minsterley Mining District of Shropshire," by Prof. 

 Lapworth, F. R.S. ; "The South Staffordshire Mines Drainage 

 Scheme, with special regard to Electric Power Pumping," by 

 Mr. E. B. Marten and Mr. Edmund Howl; "Treatment of 

 kefractory Silver Ores by Chlorination and Lixiviation," by 

 Mr. J. E. Breakell ; "The Use of High-pressure Steam as a 

 J'ossible Substitute for Gunpowder and other Explosives in 

 Coal Mines," by Major-General H. Schaw. 



The Berlin correspondent of the Times states that Herr 

 Theodor Lerner, commander of the German Polar expedition, 

 on his return to Hammerfest, despatched the following telegram 

 to the German Emperor : — "To your Majesty the most humble 

 announcement that the German North Pole expedition, by 

 means of topographical observations made during a circum- 

 navigation of the Island of King Charles, was able to determine 

 its exact position. The ship Helgoland, which carried the 

 expedition, is the first ship which has ever yet succeeded in 

 forcing a passage from the south round the eastern coast of the 

 island, which was accomplished in spite of the great quantity of 

 ice and in face of contrary conditions of weather — a feat hitherto 

 considered impossible." The German Emperor, immediately 

 on receipt of this telegram, caused the following reply to be sent 

 NO. 1505, VOL. 58] 



to Herr Lerner : — " I send my congratulations to the German 

 North Pole expedition for the splendid success which German 

 determination and circumspection have just achieved under your 

 command. — William, I.R." 



A decided change of weather has set in over our Islands 

 during the past week, and the conditions now are quite normal 

 to an ordinary summer. The excessive heat over the south- 

 east of England lasted for about a fortnight, and hot as the 

 days were in many cases they were, in comparison with average 

 conditions, surpassed by the unusually warm nights. At the 

 London reporting station of the Meteorological Office there were 

 eleven nights in August during which the thermometer did not 

 fall below 60°, and the Greenwich observations for the previous 

 twenty years only show altogether eleven such warm nights. 

 Fairly heavy rains have now fallen in all the northern and 

 western districts, and rains of lesser intensity have gradually 

 spread over the whole country. In the neighbourhood of 

 London the rainfall has, as yet, been very small, and the total 

 fall at present since the commencement of the month is only 

 about one- third of the average. In many parts of England 

 the rainfall has been very much below the average during the 

 last eleven months, and there is at present no certainty that 

 the lengthened period of dry weather is at an end. Cyclonic 

 disturbances are just now arriving from the Atlantic with 

 considerable frequency, and these are occasioning rains in many 

 parts of our area. It is, however, not improbable that anti- 

 cyclonic conditions with dry and warmer weather will again 

 shortly set in. 



Dr. G. Agamennone, in a recent paper in Gerland's 

 Beitrdge ztir Geophysik, describes his attempt to calculate the 

 velocity of the pulsations of the earthquake of Aidin (Asia 

 Minor), on August 19, 1895. They were registered by the 

 Vicentini microseismograph at Padua, and the horizontal pen- 

 dulum at Strassburg, the distances of these places from the 

 epicentre being 1570 and 2010 km. respectively. Owing to the 

 uncertainty of the [best time-observations near the epicentral 

 district, the estimates of the velocity are somewhat doubtful. 

 The first recorded movements at the above places give velocities 

 of 9-8 and 3-2 km. per sec. for the early vibrations, and 3-1 and 

 2 "55 km. per sec. for those which gave rise to the maximum 

 disturbance. 



A few notes on the results of inquiries as to the effects and 

 causes of the Indian earthquake of June 12, 1897, are given by 

 Mr. R. D. Oldham in the general report just published on the 

 work carried on by the Geological Survey of India during last 

 year and the first quarter of this year, under the direction of Dr. 

 C. L. Griesbach. An examination of available information 

 leads Mr. Oldham to conclude that there is one, and apparently 

 only one, supposition which will explain all the facts, and that 

 is the existence, or the creation, of a nearly horizontal fracture or 

 thrust plane along which the upper part of the earth's crust was 

 pushed over the lower. This plane would nowhere come to the 

 surface, and the movement of the upper layer against the undis- 

 turbed crust beyond the limits of the fracture would give rise to 

 just that compression which would account for the conspicuous 

 displacements of surface levels seen in the eastern part of the 

 Garo Hills District, and less conspicuously to the east and the 

 west. In this conclusion, Mr. Oldham thinks, an easy explana- 

 tion of the area over which the shock had a maximum of 

 destructive energy may be found without postulating an im- 

 probable depth for the focus. There is no necessity or reason 

 to suppose that the thrust plane lies at any great depth from the 

 surface, and it is possible that five miles may represent a maxi- 

 mum rather than a minimum value, but what the focus loses ia 

 depth it gains in area of action. 



