May 12, 1892] 



NA TURE 



35 



great curves. Many of these photographs tell, inci- 

 dentally, a very sad story of the loss and suffering 

 endured by the people of the district. 



In the short descriptive remarks which accompany the 

 plates, Prof. Milne has succeeded in giving us much 

 valuable information concerning the earthquake. The 

 Gifu plain is situated about the centre of the Japanese 

 Empire, and consists of a thick alluvial deposit resting on 

 metamorphic rocks, the district being highly cultivated 

 and thickly populated. The severely shaken district, in 

 which complete destruction of buildings and engineering 

 works occurred, measured 4200 square miles, but the 

 effects were felt over an area of 92,000 square miles ; and 

 ten thousand people lost their lives, while fifteen thousand 



with the name of each candidate the statement of his 

 qualifications. 



Robert Young Armstrong, Lieut.-Colonel R.E., 

 From 1870 to 1875 was Assistant Instructor in Submarine 

 Mining and Electricity, and from 1875 to 1882 was Instructor. 

 From 1884 to the present date, Inspector of Submarine De- 

 fences of the United Kingdom, Military Ports, and Coaling 

 Stations. From June 1883 to December 1888, adviser to the 

 Board of Trade in electrical matters connected with the Electric 

 Lighting Acts. Was connected with the development of the 

 present apparatus and electrical and mechanical processes em- 

 ployed in submarine mining, and with the compilation of the 

 army instructional books and methods on electricity and sub- 

 marine mining since 1870. Distinguished as an electrical 



were wounded. The earthquake is believed to have 

 originated in the Mino Mountains ; but it was in the soft 

 alluvial plain adjoining that the earth-movements were 

 most severely felt. The district thus violently affected 

 supported a population of about 800 to the square mile. 

 Earthquakes have been recorded as occurring in this 

 area, which lies quite away from any volcanic centres, 

 in 1826, in 1827, in 1859, and in 1880; and during the 

 last ten centuries there have been many terrible cata- 

 strophes affecting this area which are noticed in the 

 Japanese records. 



We look forward with much interest to the publication 

 of the full account of this destructive, and in many 

 respects remarkable, display of seismic energy, which is 

 promised to us by the Professors of the Imperial Uni- 

 versity of Japan. J. W. J. 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY SELECTED 

 CANDIDA TES. 



THE following fifteen candidates were selected on 

 Thursday last (May 5) by the Council of the Royal 

 Society to be recommended for election into the Society. 

 The ballot will take place on June 2, at 4 p.m. We print 



NO. II 76, VOL. 46] 



engineer. It may be said that the present satisfactory state of 

 defensive torpedo warfare in this country is very largely due to 

 his ability and energy. 



Frank Evers Beddard, M.A. (Oxon.), 

 Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy, Guy's Hospital. Prosector 

 to the Zoological Society. Author of the following papers :— 

 " Report on the Isopoda, collected by H.M.S. Challenger" 

 (Parts xxxiii., xlviii.) ; " Nephridia of Acanthodrilus and of 

 Perichaeta" (Proc. Roy. Soc, 1886-87); "Structure of Mega- 

 scolea" (Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., 1883); "Minute Anatomy of 

 the Ovary of Echidna " ; " Subdivision of the Cttlom in Birds 

 and Reptiles" (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1886-88); "Visceral and 

 Muscular Anatomy of Scopus" {ibid., 1885); "Anatomy of 

 various little-known Types of Birds " {ibid. ) With other papers 

 on Comparative Anatomy in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Ibis, 

 and Quart, jfourn. Micros. Sci. 



John Ambrose Fleming, M.A. (Camb.), 

 D.Sc. (Lond.). Professor of Electrical Engineering in Uni- 

 versity College, London. Late Fellow of St. John's Collie, 

 Cambridge. Fellow of University College, London. Some 

 time Demonstrator inApplied Mechanics in the University of 

 Cambridge. Author of the following papers, among others :— 

 " The Polarisation of Electrodes in Water free from Air 

 (Proc. Phys. Soc, 1874); "A New Form of Resistance 



