i8o 



NA TURE 



[December 22, 1892 



30°, its logarithmic sweep being lost behind the interven- 

 ing mountains. The almost triangular notch in the 

 snow-cap may possibly represent the scarp that is sup- 

 posed to have been formed by the great earthquake of 

 1891, causing a strip of ground in unstable equilibrium to 

 slip downwards." The reader should compare this view 

 with that given in Plate IX., which shows the lake, with 

 the reflection of the mountains behind, and the snow- 

 covered Fuji rising in the background. This plate, and 

 the view, Lake Kawaguchi, given on Plate V., are so deli- 

 cate and faithful in their portrayal of water and atmos- 

 pheric effects as to defy reproduction. 



No attempt has been made by the authors to produce 

 a scientific treatise, the information contained in the text 

 being of a popular character, and the reader is referred 

 to the Transactions of the Seismological Society of Japan 

 for more detailed information on the subjects treated of. 

 It is nevertheless true that the text published with these 

 plates contains, as the authors claim for it, information 

 not readily obtainable from other sources. The intro- 

 duction gives a sketch of the volcanic phenomena of the 

 Japan and Kurile Islands, in which we are informed that 

 the number of volcanoes still preserving their form, and 

 with distinct craters, is one hundred, distributed as fol- 

 lows :— In the Kuriles 23, in Yezo 28, in Honshiu 36, and 

 in Kiushiu and the Southern Islands 13. Of these 00 

 less than 50 emit steam, while 39 are distinguished by 

 their beautiful and graceful outlines. The number of 

 great eruptions of which there is any published record is 

 233, the greater frequency, as with earthquakes, having 

 been during the colder months of the year. One line of 

 vents, which is more than 2000 miles long, begins in 

 Kamsatka, passes through the Kuriles, Yezo, and down by 

 Honshiu to the ever-smoking Asama. Here it is joined 

 by a line branching away to the south-west, which runs 

 through the great Fujisan and Oshima, till it reaches the 

 Ladrones, a distance of 1200 miles. The last line begins 

 at, or near, the gigantic crater of Mount Aso, and extends 

 1300 miles through Formosa to the Philippines. Ex- 

 tremely basic rocks are rare, but so far as observations 

 have gone, it may be said that the lava poured out from 

 ■the northern vents is more acid in composition than the 

 southern. All are magnetic, and lavas that will turn a 

 compass-needle through 180° are not rare. By their 

 decomposition, the soil of the country is in many places 

 so filled with grains of magnetite, that a magnetized knife 

 passed over the gravel of a garden path will be covered 

 -with a brush of this unoxidizable material. 



The twelve pages devoted to the description of Fujisan 

 are replete with interesting information. The word Fuji 

 is said (on the authority of the Rev. John Batchelor, of 

 Sapporo) to be a corruption of the Ainu word Huchi, 

 Avhich is the name of the " Goddess of Fire." Professor 

 Milne ascended the mountain in 1880, and found that it 

 was not quite extinct, as is usually supposed, for small 

 quantities of steam were detected by him issuing through 

 the ashes on the eastern side of the mountain just outside 

 the lip of the crater. Von Fritsch and Ludecke have 

 shown the lavas composing Fuji to be dolerites, and 

 analyses by several chemists are given in this work. The 

 beautiful and symmetrical outlines of the mountain are 

 well known, but on the south side of the mountain there 

 is an excrescence, at a height of 9000 feet, which was pro- 

 <iuced by the last great eruption in 1707. The recorded 

 -eruptions of the mountain are as follows : — B.C. 301, 

 294, or 286, and A.D. 799, 802, 864, 937, 102 1, 1082, 1329, 

 1560, 1627, 1649, 1700, and 1707. Professor Milne records 

 the interesting observations made by him with a tro- 

 mometer or tremor-measure during a stay of five days on 

 the top of Fuji. These observations tend to prove that 

 the great mass of the mountain actually yields to force of 

 wind playing around its summit. The height of Fujisan 

 is proved by various observations to lie between 12,400 

 and 12,450 feet. 



NO. 1208, VOL. 47] 



The authors are to be congratulated on the excellence 

 of this first instalment of a work which promises to be 

 one of great scientific value. J. W. J. 



THE GALILEO CELEBRATION AT PADUA. 



I" HE celebration of the three hundredth anniversary 

 of the day on which Galileo began his labours as a 

 Professor at the University of Padua was even more 

 successful than had been anticipated. Its success was 

 in every way worthy of the large number of scientific 

 men who assembled to do honour to Galileo's memory, 

 and of the great institution with which, as it remembers 

 with veneration and pride, he was so intimately 

 associated. 



On December 6 the Rector, Prof. C. J. Ferraris, 

 received in one of the courts of the old University, 

 adorned everywhere with portraits of the most illustrious 

 professors, delegates from the Universities, the poly- 

 technic schools, and Italian and foreign Academies, 

 amounting to nearly a hundred, and amongst them many 

 of those who shed most lustre on contemporary science. 

 The University of Cambridge was represented by Prof. 

 George Howard Darwin, F.R.S., who also represented the 

 Royal Society as Mr. Norman Lockyer, its delegate, had 

 been prevented from attending. The University of Oxford 

 by Prof. E. J. Stone ; the Royal College of Physicians, 

 London, by Sir Joseph Fayrer, F.R.S. ; the Chemical 

 Society and British Association by Prof. Luchvig Mond, 

 F.R.S. ; the Harvard University, Cambridge, U.S.A., 

 by Prof. William James, and the Princeton University by 

 Prof. Allan Marquand ; the University of Lund by Prof. 

 R. A. V. Holmgren ; the Astronomicil Observatory of 

 Paris by its Director, Prof. F. Tisserand ; that of Berlin 

 by Prof. W. Foerster ; the Polytechi^'c Schools of Berlin. 

 Karlsruhe, Monaco, Brunswick, Stuugart, by Profs, 

 Lampe, Keller, Sohncke, Biasing, Lemcke ; the Univer- 

 sity of Gottingen by Prof. Voigt ; that of Budapest by 

 Prof. Lanczy ; that of Dorpat by Prof. Schmourlo ; that 

 of Lausanne by its Rector, Prof. Favey ; the Academy 

 of Paris by Prof. Gariel ; the Faculty of Letters at 

 Grenoble by Prof, de Croyals ; the General Council 

 of the Faculty at Nancy by Prof. Molk, &c., &c. There 

 were also delegates from the towns of Florence, Pisa, 

 Venice, and representatives from the foremost Italian 

 Universities, Academies, and Technical Schools. 



The great academical celebration took place on 

 December 7 in the large hall of the University, in the 

 presence of the Hon. Ferdinando Martini, Minister of 

 Public Instruction, who represented the King of Italy. 

 The ceremony was begun with a discourse prepared 

 for the occasion by the Rector Magnifico, and devoted 

 principally to a cordial expression of thanks to the King 

 and to the Minister who represented him ; to the 

 foreign and Italian delegates ; and to the ladies of 

 Padua, who had given the University a most 

 beautiful banner, on which were various emblems indi- 

 cating the history of the University, the genealogical 

 tree of the Galileo family, and the ancient inscription 

 above the door of the University — Gymnasium omnium 

 discipliiiarum. 



Next came the commemoration of Galileo by Prof. 

 Antonio Favaro, who has for nearly fifteen years devoted 

 himself almost exclusively to the study of the life and 

 works of Galileo, and to whom was confided by the 

 Government the care of the national edition of the 

 philosopher's works, under the auspices of the King of 

 Italy. The orator kept his discourse within the limits 

 marked out for him, speaking chiefly of Galileo at Padua. 

 Constrained to leave the University of Pisa, Galileo had 

 been welcomed in that of Padua, where he found the 

 "natural home of his mind," a "theatre worthy of his 

 talents." The conditions at Padua at that time were 

 eminently favourable to Galileo's work, for the Venetian 



