172 



NATURE 



[July 23, 1891 



publication, Dr. Johnston-Lavis has added one more to 

 the long list of valuable services which he has rendered 

 to geological science. 



Les Sciences Naturelles et V Education. Par T. H. Huxley. 



Edition Frangaise. (Paris : Bailliere et Fils, 1891.) 

 This is a translation of various essays with which all 

 English students of Prof. Huxley's writings have long 

 been familiar. Most of them deal with various aspects 

 of the question as to the true place of science in a proper 

 system of education ; and no one who has read them in 

 their original form is likely to have forgotten the philo- 

 sophical power with which the subject is discussed, or the 

 admirable lucidity, strength, and grace of the writer's style. 

 With his educational papers Prof. Huxley has associated 

 his well-known essays on Descartes and Auguste Comte, 

 which cannot fail to be of interest to French readers. He 

 contributes to the volume a short preface, in which he refers 

 with satisfaction to the astonishing advance that has been 

 made in the recognition of science as an instrument of 

 education. He warns men of the younger generation, 

 however, that the battle has only been half won, and that 

 much serious work will have to be done to secure the 

 triumph of the principles for which he has contended Of 

 the translation it may be enough to say that Prof. Huxley 

 cordially commends it as a faithful rendering of his 

 thought. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



{The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed 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 l^iAlvvni,. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. "^ 



W. E. Weber. 



In the article on "Wilhelm Weber (Nature, July 9, p. 229) no 

 mention is made of the fact that Weber and Gauss in 1833 

 invented and constructed a telegraph connecting the Physical 

 Laboratory of the University in Gottingen with the Observatory. 

 In Germany they are for this reason said to be the inventors of 

 telegraphy. This is, to say the least, a somewhat sweeping 

 statement, as the possibility of communicating by electricity was 

 known long before that time. However, there is no doubt that 

 Weber and Gauss played some part in introducing telegraphy 

 into practice. For my part I consider the purely scientific work 

 of either of the two men more glorious. For the enormous 

 practical consequences of telegraphy have nothing to do with 

 the scientific merit of the invention. Nevertheless I think 

 that an article on Wilhelm Weber would not be complete 

 without entering into this subject. C. Runge. 



Hanover, Technische Hochschule, July 13. 



[Conducting wires were erected between the Gottingen 

 Observatory and the Physical Cabinet of the University, distant 

 about three-quarters of an English mile, in order to obtain 

 accurate comparisons of the clocks. But, in addition to system- 

 atic daily transmission of time, the wires were from the first 

 frequently used for telegraphic purposes, though, with the first 

 arrangements, only two letters could be sent in a minute. — 

 G. C. F.l 



Earthquake Shocks in Italy and Australia. 



By a telegram from London, which appeared in the news- 

 papers here on the 12th and 13th inst., information is given of 

 a severe earthquake in Italy (about Vesuvius) on June 7 (Sun- 

 day). On that day, several distinct and well-marked shocks 

 were felt over parts of the south of Australia, and as there may 

 be some connection between these seismic disturbances in both 

 hemispheres, 1 give below the times and other information of 

 the disturbances experienced here. 



None of the disturbances reported in Australia seem to have 

 been more than a "shake " or sharp tremor sufficient to shake 

 windows and rattle crockery, &c., but they were enough, in some 

 instance?, to produce feelings of nausea. 



NO. II 34. VOL. 44] 



June 7, at 2.5 p.m., the first disturbance occurred, and was 

 felt all around Melbourne and over a surrounding area of 360 

 square miles. 



June 7, at 2.45, another shake (not so great as the first) was 

 also felt ; in this case it was felt most severely to the east of 

 Melbourne. 



June 7, at 7.20, smart shock felt at Kapunda, South Australia. 



June 7, at 6.45, slight shock felt at Stockport, South 

 Australia The direction of motion is variously given as from 

 north-west to south-east, south-east to north-west, and south- 

 west to north-east, north to south, south to north, &c. The 

 conclusion arrived at is that the wave was from south to north 

 nearly. The approximate geographical positions of the several 

 localities where these disturbances occurred are as follows : — 



Lat. Long. 



138 57 E. 

 138 46 E. 

 144 58 E. 

 Melbourne, June 15. R. L. J. Ellery. 



P.S. — It is quite probable the shocks felt at Kapunda and 

 Stockport were one and the same, as time is not very strictly 

 kept in districts distant from large towns in Australia. 



Force and Determinism, 



I SEE nothing to criticize in Mr. Dixon's middle paragraph, 

 wherein he accurately summarizes some of the definitions of 

 mechanics, except that I should prefer to express the meaning of 

 his last sentence by saying that, if in any department something 

 simulated the functions of, say, energy, without obeying its pre- 

 cise mechanical laws, then the distinction between energy and 

 that something should be clearly recognized, and another name 

 be given to it. 



I find it rather common for "life" to be thought of and 

 classed under the head energy, either by the use of a phrase such 

 as "vital energy," or in a more direct way; the reason being 

 apparently that organisms while living simulate some of the 

 functions of energy, and cease to do so when dead. It was 

 against this confusion that I wrote on p. 491 (vol. xliii.). 



Life has not yet been included in the domain of physics, 

 neither has it, so far as I am aware, been much studied under 

 the head biology. 



And yet the disturbing action of live animals will have to be 

 formulated and attended to some day, even in physics ; for, 

 though they generate no energy nor affect its amount in the 

 slightest degree, they certainly control it and direct it in channels 

 it would not otherwise have taken. The question is, How do they 

 manage this? And one answer that may be given is, By exerting 

 directive or guiding forces on matter. 



Of course they are not limited to this, but in so far as they do 

 work their action is fairly understood : the energy displayed by a 

 gang of navvies is known to be derived from the little tin cans 

 they bring with them : the energy is not theirs but their victuals', 

 they simply direct it. But how comes it that they can direct 

 the energy of victuals and atmosphere into the erection of the 

 precise bridge or other structure which has been planned? What 

 determines the direction of the transfer of energy? 



The same question may doubtless be asked in connection with 

 inanimate activity : I would not be understood as assuming for 

 certain any clear or essential difference between the two cases ; 

 but in neither case do I know the answer. 



The action of force in doing work, i.e. transferring and trans- 

 forming quantities of energy, has been thoroughly attended to. 



The action of force in directing and guiding the transfer of 

 matter and energy does not seem to me to have been seriously 

 contemplated. 



In his most recent book ("The Philosophical Basis of Evolu- 

 tion ") Dr. Croll attacks the problem, and says that guidance is 

 effected by "determinism" not by force. But that cannot be 

 admitted ; for without force the motion of matter cannot be 

 changed in direction any more than in speed. Force is certainly 

 necessary to direct the motion of matter, it is energy only which 

 is unnecessary ; for any transfer of energy that may occur is an 

 accidental, not an essential, concomitant. 



I determine to move an object : it may be only my finger, or it 

 may be a wheelbarrow. In so far as I do any work in the action 

 I do so at the expense of my food, and there is nothing but a 

 chemical difficulty about that. The mystery begins when one 



