36o 



NATURE 



[August io, 1893 



of the paper, an attempt is made to show that the annual change 

 in barometric pressure may be the cause of the annual change in 

 seismic frequency. It would be difficult to prove that such a con- 

 nection exists, but reasons are given which seem to render it in 

 some degree probable. 



1. The most probable cause of the origin of the majority of 

 non-volcanic earthquakes is the impulsive friction, due to slipping, 

 of the two rock-surfaces of a fault. Now, whatever be the causes 

 of seismic periodicity, it seems probable that they are merely 

 auxiliary, and determine the epoch when an earthquake shall take 

 place, rather than there shall be an earthquake at all. Prof. G. 

 H. Darwin has shown that the vertical displacement of the 

 earth's surface by parallel waves of barometric elevation and de- 

 pression is not inconsiderable, and that it diminishes at first very 

 slowly as the depth increases. Since the fault-slip which pro- 

 duces even a moderately strong shock must be very small, and 

 since the work to be done in such a case is, not the compression 

 of solid rock, but the slight depression of a fractured mass 

 whose support is nearly, but not quite, withdrawn, the annual 

 range of barometric pressure does not seem incompetent to pro- 

 duce the effects observed. 



2. Comparisons between the dates of the maximum epochs of 

 the seismic and barometric annual periods are made in 31 of the 

 districts treated in this paper. The seismic maximum approxi- 

 mately coincides with the barometric maximum in 10 districts, 

 and follows it by about one month in 9, and by about two 

 months in 4, districts ; the other cases generally admitting of some 

 explanation. 



3. In several insular seismic districts, and especially in Japan 

 and New Zealand, the amplitude of the annual period is very 

 small ; and, if many of the earthquakes of these districts originate 

 beneath the sea, this should be the case ; for, in the course of a 

 year, as the barometric pressure changes, the sea will have time 

 to take up its equilibrium position, and thus the total pressure 

 on the sea-bottom will be unaltered. 



Paris. 



Academyof Sciences, July 31. — M. de Lacaze-Duthiers in 

 the chair. — Note on the work of M. D. CoUadon, by M. 

 Sarrau. M. J. D. CoUadon, who died at Geneva on June 

 30, at the age of 91, was the first to transmit power to a dis- 

 tance by compressed air, and to utilise this power in boring 

 tunnels. His system, proposed in 1852, was adopted in the 

 working of the Cenis and Gothard tunnels. His name is also 

 widely known in connection with improvements in paddle- 

 wheels, and his celebrated investigation of the velocity of sound 

 in the Lake of Geneva, in connection with Sturm. — Petroleum 

 beds near Pechelbronn (Lower Alsace) ; exceptionally high 

 temperatures observed there, by M. Daubree. About twelve 

 years ago the flooding of one of the petroleum mines of Pechel- 

 bronn by a sudden outbreak of the mineral oil suggested a sub- 

 stitution of boring and pumping for the laborious subterranean 

 process, with the result that the yield was increased more than 

 seventy times. The tertiary beds, which have an inclination of 

 7 or 8 per 100, are rich in gas, and the force with which the 

 jets are projected when struck is sufficient to drench the men 

 and produce a disturbance resembling an earthquake. It is 

 calculated that all the sources together produce at present 

 80,000 kgr. of petroleum per day, and it is probable that many 

 jets, if bored wide enough, would be capable of yielding 

 50,000 kgr. per day each. Some of the sources show a remark- 

 able rise of temperature with increasing depth, reaching 1° for 

 7m. in one boring. This rise, contrary to the usual experience, 

 becomes more rapid as the depth increases. M. Daubree at- 

 tributes both the occurrence of the oil and the extraordinary 

 distribution of temperature to a particularly energetic internal 

 activity, chemical or otherwise, of the globe at that point. — 

 On the unequal resistance to drought exhibited by some largely 

 cultivated plants, by M. P. P. Deherain. — Observation of four 

 simultaneous water-spouts at Antibes, by M. Naudin. These 

 were observed on July 27, on the sea between Nice and An- 

 tibes. They were ranged very nearly in a straight line running 

 east and west. The wind had suddenly veered from west to 

 east and the water-spouts were produced at the junction of the 

 two air-currents, and were observed to turn in a direction con- 

 trary to the hands of a watch. They lasted several minutes, 

 gradually approaching the land, and broke on the hills near the 

 shore. — Photography and physical observation of comet 

 b 1893, made at the Juvisy Observatory, by M. F. 

 Quenisset. A photograph was obtained by means of a Her- 



NO. I 24 1. VOL. 4.8] 



magis lens of 16 cm. aperture, the exposure being 40m., 

 on July 19. The negative shows a double tail, one of them 1° 

 long and pointing east, the other 30' long and inclined 

 towards the north. — An addition to the nomographic method 

 recently described, allowing the introduction of another 

 variable, by M. Maurice d'Ocagne. — On benzoylnicotine, by 

 M. A. Etard. — On the fixation of iodine by starch, by M. G. 

 Rouvier. — On the preparation of caproic and normal hexylic 

 acids, by M. J. Tripier. — On gallate of mercury, a new antisy- 

 philitic preparation, by MM. Brousse and Gay. — On virulent 

 and epidemic cholera, by M. N. Gamaleia. The concentration 

 of the nutrient medium, and the abundance of saline matter in 

 the culture fluid gives rise to several slightly different variations 

 of the cholera vibrio, which agree in being very much more 

 virulent than the ordinary type. The author suspects an analogy 

 between this fact and the observed dependance of the epidemic 

 upon the conditions of desiccation of the soil and the level of 

 subterranean waters. — On submarine photography, by M. Louis 

 Boutan. — On the habits of Blennius sphinx and Bltnnius 

 montagid, Fleming, by M. Frederic Guitel. — On the cerebral 

 nuclei of the myriapods, by M. Joannes Chatin. — Researches 

 on the anatomy and development of the male genital apparatus 

 of the orthopterous insects, by M. A. Peytoureau. — Anatomical 

 characters of the stems of the Dioscoreae, by M. C. Queva. — ■ 

 Development of the ground-nut, by M. A. Andouard. — On a 

 trial of a screw for vertical propulsion, by M. Mallet. A 

 Langlois air propeller of 2*5 m. diameter was attached to the 

 car of a balloon of 800 m^capacity, and worked by the muscular 

 power of the aeronauts. During one minute the balloon ^va; 

 raised 100 m., sinking again to its former level on stopping the 

 propeller. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



The Protection of Woodlands 337 



North American Butterflies. ByW. F. Kirby. . . 338 

 Our Book Shelf:— 



Howard: " Life with Trans-Siberian Savages" . . . 339 



Gregory and Christie: "Advanced Physiography" . 339 



' ' Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society " 340 

 Letters to the Editor: — 



The Publication of Scientific Papers.— J. Y. Bu- 

 chanan, F.R.S. ; E. Wyndham Hulme . . . 340 

 The General Motions of the Atmosphere. — W. L. 



Dallas 341 



Thunderbolt in Warwickshire. — L. Cumming , . , 342 



The Suicide of Rattlesnakes.— Edward S. Holden . 342 



New Conclusions. — Graham Officer; Lewis Balfour 342 



The Thieving of Assyrian Antiquities 343 



British Association Meeting in Nottingham. By 



Prof. Frank Clowes 344 



Magneto-Optic Rotation. {With Diagrams.) By Prof. 



Andrew Gray 345 



The Earthquake in Baluchistan. (Illustrated.) . . . 348 



Science in the Magazines 349 



Marie-Davy 35l 



Notes 35' 



Our Astronomical Column: — 



Comet 1893 (Rordame-Quenisset) 355 



Comet Finlay 1893 355 



Total Solar Eclipses 355 



The Observation of Aurorae 355 



New Determination of the Constant of Universal 



Attraction 355 



Himmel und Erde for August 355 



Oeographical Notes 35^ 



The Institution of Mechanical Engineers 356 



The Williams Collection of Minerals. By L. 



Fletcher, F.R.S 357 



Proposed New Telescope for Cambridge Observa- 

 tory 358 



University and Educational Intelligence 358 



Scientific Serials 359 



Societies and Academies 359 



