January 22, 1903] 



NA TURE 



271 



"incalculable value" involves the education on similar lines of 

 9999 who will not be of any special value. 



13 Vicarage Drive, Eastbourne. G. W. Bulman. 



Your correspondent, like many other people, regards the 

 struggle for existence, not only as a fact, but as an ideal ; not 

 only as a necessary mode of effecting improvements in low- 

 grade organisms, but as a method which should indefinitely 

 continue in unchecked and unaided action, in spite of the 

 arrival on the scene of a comprehending and guiding intelligence, 

 such as may be competent to replace it by methods more direct 

 and rapid ; for instance, the methods of artificial selection and 

 protection of the weak, which we have learnt how to begin to 

 practice. 



He also presses his admiration for the struggle-and-survival 

 method so far as to suppose that no properties and powers can 

 be useful which are not fostered by it. 



To me it seems that struggle and competition are more akin 

 to those forces of nature which the human race does wisely to 

 train and hold in check, as a maritime country might protect 

 its coasts from the ravages of the sea, instead of sitting idle and 

 assuming that nature alone, without the guiding hand of man, 

 is perfect and unimprovable. Surely it is a mistake to suppose 

 that the fostering care which after long effort has been now 

 manifestly introduced into the scheme is useless and inoperative 

 and subordinate to the forces which preceded it. 



Oliver Lodge. 



A Pot of Basil. 



Mr. A. E. Shipley's interesting article (p. 205) en Ocimum 

 viride and its influence on mosquitoes recalled some observations 

 that I made upon the papaw-tree (Carina papain) in China. 

 My house, on the bank of the river at Whampoa, near Canton, 

 was singularly free from mosquitoes, though the other houses on 

 the same island were more or less infested with them. A line 

 of papaw-trees stretched between my house and the river. I 

 frequently watched these trees, yet I never saw a single insect 

 alight on them, though flies and other insects settled in num- 

 bers upon the bamboos and banana-plants not far away. In 

 fact, the papaw-trees seemed to keep insects at a distance and 

 to act as a rampart guarding the house from mosquitoes. The 

 probability of this suggestion was considerably strengthened by 

 the increase in the number of mosquitoes entering the house after 

 a typhoon had blown down two papaw-trees and thus made a gap 

 in the row, and by the still further increase when a second typhoon 

 felled another of the trees. I have questioned a number of 

 persons living in the tropics, and one of them stated that he was 

 familiar with the fact that papaw-trees repelled mosquitoes. 



That the papaw-tree possesses some curious property — in 

 addition to the notorious proteolytic action of its juice — is sug- 

 gested by the widespread practice of hanging meat in its shade 

 to render the meat tender. The custom is frequently regarded 

 as a senseless one, but its wide distribution causes one to ask, 

 Is it not possible that the papaw-tree should exhale a gaseous 

 product which either repels meat-destroying insects or exerts 

 an antiseptic action on putrefactive bacteria, or, finally, is a 

 volatile ferment ? The peculiar relation in regard to tempera- 

 ture displayed by the proteolytic ferment of the papaw juice 

 renders the last possibility less improbable than at first 

 impression. Percy Groom. 



The Mismanagement of London University Library. 

 Is it impossible for the powers that be at London University 

 to abolish the scandalous regulations concerning the library, 

 and to render this library a means of culture instead of an almost 

 unusable and unused collection of books? A university 

 library ought to be so managed that anyone wishing to bequeath 

 books could put them to no better use than by leaving them to 

 the university ; but, as things are, it would scarcely be possible 

 to more effectually waste books than by giving them 10 London 

 University. In ihe first place — contrary to the practice of the 

 learned societies and the subscription-libraries — no graduate is 

 allowed to have books sent to him by post, which regulalion 

 at once renders the library utterly ^eless to the great majority 

 of graduates. Secondly, an absolutely insane rule requires the 

 return of all books by December 31 of each year, even though 

 they may have been borrowed at Christmas and are required 

 for study during the vaotion ! and although I inlrrpret this 



NO. 1734, VOL. 67] 



rule as applying only to non-members of Convocation, a con- 

 trary interpretation has prevented me from obtaining books a 

 fortnight ago. Thirdly, although the University has now been 

 located in its new home for two years, a personal demand for 

 books is met by the reply that, as " the books of the library have 

 not yet been arranged, and the whole library is in a very dis- 

 organised state," the books either cannot be found at all or only 

 after several days' delay ! The history of a recent attempt to 

 obtain books from this library would move the careless to 

 laughter and the studious to anger ; but I dare not trespass 

 further on your space. F. II. Perry-Coste. 



Polperro, R.S.O., Cornwall, January 8. 



Recent Earthquakes in Guatemala. 



A few weeks ago, I returned from a journey of severa 

 months' duration through the western part of the republic of 

 Guatemala, where I investigated, at the request of the Govern- 

 ment, the causes and effects of the recent earthquakes. The 

 principal results are the following : — 



The first severe earthquake was reported to have occurred on 

 January 16, L902, at the south-west of Mexico, destrojing 

 Chipalzingo, the capital of the State of Guerrero. 



On January iS, 5 20 p.m., a strong shock occurred on the 

 Pacific side of Mexico and Guatemala, shaking down in the 

 latter country the village of San Francisco Zapolitlan (near 

 Mazatenango), and destroying buildings and masonry work in 

 several large plantations near this village and farther west in a 

 district south-east of the town of San Marcos. The shock 

 came from the S. S.W., and was reported from the whole Pacific 

 coast of Guatemala and Soconusco, but I could not get in- 

 formation how far inland it was perceived. 



From that time on, a great many local shocks were noted in 

 the western part of Guatemala, especially in a district called 

 Costa Cuca. 



At 8.25 p.m., April iS, the most severe earthquake occurred, 

 being felt from Nicaragua to the city of Mexico, over all 

 Chiapas, the whole republic of Guatemala, British Honduras 

 and a great part of Spanish Honduras. 



In my sketch (Nature, June 12, 1902), the region in which 

 most destructive effects occurred must be extended more to the 

 west, taking in north-eastern Soconusco. 



In Guatemala, the towns that suffered most were Quezal- 

 tenango, San Juan Ostuncalco, San Pedro Sacatepequez, San 

 Marcos and the Port of Ocos. Great was also the damage 

 done in the numerous coffee plantations. Enormous landslips 

 dammed up rivers (Rio Naranjoand Rio Ixtacapa) and destroyed 

 hundreds of thousands of coffee-trees. The total loss of human 

 life numbered 330 to 335, of which 129 were killed in Ouezal- 

 tenango and forty-nine in San Pedro Sacatepequez. 



The earthquake lasted more than fifty seconds and also came 

 from the S.S.W. This was clearly shown by the effects of the 

 shock in the coast towns and in the coffee region ; in Ouezal- 

 tenango and San Marcos, there have been movements in many 

 directions, but the initial one was also from S.S.W. 



After April 18, a great number of smaller shocks of short 

 duration and generally very restricted extension were observed, 

 most of them again in the Costa Cuca and neighbouring dis- 

 tricts, and on September 23 another larger earthquake shook 

 the whole country again, but did little damage (in Ouezal- 

 tenango a child was killed by a falling wall). I was then in 

 Guatemala City, where the shock lasted sixty-five seconds. The 

 movement was again from S.S.W. Reports about it came from 

 the Peten, Belize, Salvador and Chiapas. 



The epicentrum of the great earthquakes of January 18, 

 April iS and September 23 must be situated out in the Pacific 

 Ocean ; the cable which connects San Jose de Guatemala with 

 the Mexican port Salina Cruz was broken during October. 



The local shocks (of which I noted a great many) between 

 the large ones came from different directions. Underground 

 noises were frequent. 



There had been wild reports about threatening eruptions or 

 the Fajumulco Volct.no (4210 m.), the highest in Central 

 America. I ascended it in June and went around it at its base, 

 but the volcano was quiet. Great land and rock slides had 

 altered its slopes a little, especially to the south and around the 

 crater. The hot springs at the town of Fajumulco were nearly 

 in the same condition as when I had seen them in 1SS5. 



The people of the district were also much afraid of the volcano 

 of S»nla Maria. This volcano, 3768 m. high, is in its upper 



