DE VEL OPMEiVT OF SEISMOL OGY IN JAPAN 253 



talented man, and resulted in giving birth to the Seismological 

 Society of Japan. Among the members of the Society we find those 

 whose names will he remembered for ever as the fathers and nurses of 

 the physical sciences in this country, i.e. C.G. Knott, J.W. Ewing, 

 T.C. Mendenhall. E. Knipping, T. Gray, E. Naumann, and others. 

 Among the Japanese members the names are to be seen of D. 

 Kikuchi, I\. Yamakawa, K. Furuichi, K. Nakamura, T. Kochibe and 

 other pioneers, among which stands the name of K. Sekiya, the first 

 seismologist proper of this country. On turning over the leaves of the 

 16 volumes of the Transactions of the Society we cannot but be struck 

 by the stimulating atmosphere of enthusiasm in which those members 

 pursued their aim. It will not be too much to say that the seed of 

 everything pertaining to the problems of seismology was sown in these 

 times. Not only the statistical side of the investigations which has 

 been followed specially by later students in this country, but pli3'sical 

 investigations, experimental as well as theoretical, into the nature and 

 the mode of generation of seismic phenomena received due attention. 

 To cite a few examples, experiments on earth waves caused by ex- 

 plosions were carried out and the results discussed with such a 

 thoroughness as would be considered exemplary, at least for those 

 days. The study of the slow deformation of the earth crust had been 

 proposed, and even a design of a water level suitable for that purpose 

 suggested. The electrical phenomena accompanying earthquakes have 

 not been neglected. It is rather a remarkable fact that these valua- 

 ble labours of the pioneers have apparently fallen into utter oblivion, 

 and yet remote echoes of their pick and spade have been heard in the 

 foremost files of modern seismology. 



After the dissolution of the Seismological Society of Japan, due 

 to the gradual decrease in the number of the supporting members, 

 the activity of Milne was continued for two years in editing the 

 Seismological Journal of Japan up to 1895, with the zealous collabo- 

 ration of Sekiya and Omori who successively laid the foundation of 

 the Seismological Institute of the Imperial University of Tokyo. A 

 timely fresh impetus to the study of earthquakes was given by the 

 severe shocks of 1891 in the Mino-Owari districts. By the initiative 

 of Baron Kikuchi, supported by the scientific staff of the University, 

 the Earthquake Investigation Committee was organized under the 

 auspices of the Department of Education of the Imperial Government. 

 The members of the Committee consisted of those who stood foremost 



