FEBRUARY 26, 1914] 
NATURE 
717 
information recentlv received from Japan, 337 
earthquakes occurred in the south of the country 
on January 12, the strongest of all being recorded 
at Nagasaki at 6h. 29m. 27s. The coincidence 
is so close as to justify Prof. Belar’s conclusion 
that the earthquake recorded at Laibach origin- 
ated near the south coast of Japan. That the 
earthquake was of considerable strength is evi- 
dent from an account by the Rev. A. C. Hutchin- 
son, of Kagoshima, which appeared in The Times 
for February 6. ‘The earth,” he says, “seemed 
to leap convulsively upwards. The quaking was 
so great for two minutes that it was difficult to 
stand.” 
Prof. Belar remarks that the interest of the 
seismogram is due to the possible connection of 
the earthquake with the eruption of Sakurajami 
on the same day. As a rule, the foci of volcanic 
earthquakes are close to the surface, and the 
vibrations are insensible, even with instrumental 
aid, at considerable distances from the epicentre. 
If the shock recorded at Laibach were of volcanic 
tor 42" 43 44 45 46 a7 
fifty miles or more) from the recently active vol- 
cano of Sakurajami, for the seismic sea-waves 
which swept over the low-lying parts of Kago- 
shima arrived half-an-hour or more after the 
earthquake was felt in that city. But, notwith- 
standing this, it seems probable that Prof. Belar 
is correct in assigning to the earthquake a place 
among the volcanic phenomena, and to its focus 
a depth considerably greater than is usual in 
volcanic earthquakes. C. Davison. 
ALBINISM. 
ie word albinism is used in several senses. 
In the strictest sense it is used only of 
cases in which pigment is completely, or apparently 
completely, absent from the skin, hair, and eyes; 
in the widest sense it includes many grades of 
deficiency of pigment, whether generally over the 
body or in restricted areas. The memoir before 
us illustrates the difficulty of defining albinism, for 
according to the authors all grades of pigment 
IM rvreriayvoruin)/inatine-wtinayterngil 
ry —~~ a Coco — 
N Wann, iwN\eus— ey] 38 39 40 
Fic. 1.—Seismogram obtained at Laibach, Austria. 
origin, this would be the first instance of a 
volcanic earthquake being recorded across an 
entire continent since the horizontal pendulum was 
adapted for seismographic purposes. 
Of earthquakes connected with a volcanic erup- 
tion, those which are due to the actual explosions 
are usually of less intensity than those which occur 
at other times, while the strongest shocks may 
originate at some distance from the voleano. For 
instance, in the south-west corner of Hokkaido 
(the northern island of Japan), there is a group 
of volcanoes, of which three—the Komaga-take, 
the Tarumai-san, and the Usu-san—have been 
active recently. Earthquakes are extremely rare 
in this part of the country, but each of the last 
four eruptions has taken place in fairly close 
connection with a strong earthquake the epicentre 
of which has been from sixty to 170 miles from 
the volcano.t 
It seems clear that the earthquake of January 
12 must have originated at some distance (perhaps 
1 F. Omori, Bull. Imp. Earthq. Inves. Com., vol. v., 1911, pp. 5-7 
NO. 2313, VOL. 92] 
reduction occur, both in Man and other Verte- 
brates, so that no sharp line would seem to exist 
between total and partial-albinism. There is_little 
doubt, however, that a number of quite different 
causes may give rise to pigment reduction, and 
that much might be done to classify the various 
manifestations into natural groups. Some of the 
more outlying types are already clearly separable, 
e.g. pathological leucoderma, and the whitening 
of the hair of certain species in winter, which is 
due to a shedding of pigmented hair and its re- 
placement by white in autumn, followed by moult 
in the other direction in the spring. 
Another group of so-called albinotic cases can 
be separated by their mode of inheritance. An 
inspection of pedigrees at once reveals the fact 
that some cases of “partial albinism” in 
man, in which the skin is spotted with white, or 
in which there is a white patch of. hair on a body 
1 “*A Monograph on Albinism_in Man.” By Karl Pearson, F.R.S., 
E. Nettleship, F.R.S., and C. H. Usher. Part ii., Text. Pp. 265-524 
tatlas. Price, 30s, net. Part iv., Text. -Pp. iv.-+136+xxii-+atlas. 
(London: Dulau & Co., Ltd., 1913.) Price, 215. net. (Drapers’ Company 
Research Memoirs. Biometric Series, viii. and ix.) 
