May i, 18S4J 



NATURE 



19 



Lween Wivenhoe and Langenhoe? In lhat case does it not also 

 suggest the local character of the earthquake ? 



Langenhoe and the adjacent villages, with the Isle of Mersea 

 close by and in full view, appear to form the focus of the .lis. 

 jturbance. So far as I have been able to learn, the clocks 

 stopped by the shock were those facing the north. 



I see the newspapers refer to various cracks and fissures in the 

 -round at Langenhoe, Abberton, Mersea, and elsewhere, as 

 having been caused by the earthquake. I saw numbers of them, 

 but in every instance they were the ordinary cracks which always 

 appear in the London Clay during a drought, or after a spell of 

 dry weather like that of the last three week . hi none of the 

 instances I saw had the fissures anything to do with the earth- 

 quake. 



The local character of the area of chief disturbance is not 

 pnly indicated fcy th: liferent dirccticno in which the rubfcssh 

 ras thrown from the battlements of Wivenhoe ami Langenhoe 

 Churches relatively, but also by the fact that whilst the western 

 side of Mersea Island suffered severely, the eastern side was only 

 klightly affected in comparison. 



Museum, Ipswich, April 26 J. E. I 



THE earthquake was felt here very plainly, and I am able to 

 |rive some evidence as to the amount of oscillation experienced 

 it the moment when the wave pas-ed under Cambridge. I 

 happened to be looking at my marine aquaria at rati 

 than twenty minutes past nine on Tuesday morning (I regrel I 



lid not notice the exact time, but that was about it), and the water 

 |n them distinctly moved. The oscillation was not violent, as if 

 produced by a concussion in the air, such as an explosion would 



uise, hut rather as if the table on which the aquaria itand had 

 seen tilted up to the extent of an inch, and in the dins tion oi a 

 line running east and west. I was looking more particularly at 



I very shallow aquarium in which I keep shrimps, mu 



and loving annelids, and one portion of which has less than a 

 buarter of an inch depth of water. This was lilted up so much 

 ;hat the sand at the shallow end was quite uncovered by the water, 

 tnd my first thought was that evaporation had taken place during 



' ■' I ding nighl to such an extent as to endanger th 



lie nereids and other creatures; I therefore went hastily for 

 tome fresh water, hut upon returning with it in a minute I found 

 ■ wati 1 at its normal level, and I had no necessity to pour any 

 fresh in. I remember, too, that I was sensible of a' slight giddi- 

 less at the time, and the house and everything in it seemed to 



II moving. The sensation indeed was much like being on ship- 

 ■ sard. I had no suspicion of the real cause, hut thought it was 



slight raininess, as I had not then breakfasted. 



Mill Road, Cambridge, April 23 A 1 i;i 11 II. \\ 1 111 



Tur. following memoranda nun bi l interest : — On January 

 f. 1869, I was with Prof. Dawkins, engaged in examining the 

 me Mr. Whincopp's collection at Woodbridge, Suffolk. On 



y way home I was delayed three hours at Bury St. Edmund's 

 1 consequence of a luggage-train having broken down to the 

 jastward. While there I was told that an earthquake had been 



It lhat day at Thurston, Elmswell, and Haughley, places be- 

 tween Ipswich and Bury. It was reported that a workman, 

 'ting rating ] n , luncheon on the bank, saw the rails move, 

 lentioning this when I returned home, I was told that the 

 in tin- village had felt a shock. I therefore inter- 

 lewed him and made the following note :— " January 15, 1S69: 

 '.C. Redhouse, whennearthe 'Hare and Hounds'" (which is 



few hundred yards south of my house) "on Sunday morning 

 le 3rd, about 2 a.m., heard a sound like heavy distant guns, 



Ucl ted to shake him and to make him reel. He was 



•alking fast, and stop],,. I. II,,,, n0 5 hake after the 



mind. He thought there were six or -even reports in 

 ; from north to 



JUth. There were three sounds before he stopped, and 

 bree afterwards. II,- did nol n line, foi two 



lr three chains' distance. The sounds were very heavy, and he 

 ent home in alarm." I was awakened the lame night by a 



mor of the bed. This occurrei ire the shock in 



ffolk. The late earthquake was preceded at Langenhoe by a 



•htii- one on February 18. 



A yacht captain at Wivenhoe happened, on the 22nd inst., to 

 ,.;ness the effects from the top of a ladder. I baring a rumbling 

 ( > and, he looked about him and saw the church and all the 

 jiuses rocking about, some one way and some another, "like a 

 ol pleasure-boats at the seaside with a gentle ;well on." 

 .his seems to show that the length of the wave could not have 



been great, but that it must have been in opposite places withi n 

 a few hundred yards. Knowing the district well, il strikes me 

 as remarkable that the strength of the shock should have been 

 so much localised, while the distance over which it was slightly 

 felt was so extended. 1 1. FlSHER 



Ilarlton, Cambridge, April 2S 



Although this Observatory does not possess a seismograph, 

 yet the passage of yesterday's earthquake wave was recorded by 

 the magnetographs, although I am not aware the shock was fell 

 by any one in this neighbourhood. It was registered at 9.17-18 

 a.m. G.M.T., and from the fan that the disturbance of the 

 horizontal force magnetometer was the greatest, we infer that the 

 terrestrial movement was rather north and south than east and 

 west. ,, \i. Whiph 1, 



Kew Observatory, Richmond, Surrey, April 23 



Probably one of the extreme limits of the action of the 

 earthquake of April 22 was at Street, Somerset, ten miles beyond 

 the Mendip main anticline. There it was certainly felt by an 

 invalid lady, who mentioned it at midday dinner, only a few 

 hours after, no news having been received, of course, from other 

 pari . Hi. there been any certain record of it north of the con- 

 Idteozoic ridge across the North Midland counties? 



York, April 28 ). Edmund Clark 



NOTES 

 At the meeting of the Executive Committee of the City and 

 Guilds of London Institute held on Tuesday, the following ap- 

 pointments were made at the Central Institution, Exhibition 

 Road :— To the Professorship of Chemistry, Henry Armstrong, 

 Ph.D., F.R.S., of the Technical College, Finsbury ; to the Pro- 

 fessorship of Engineering, W. C. Unwin, D.Sc, of the Royal 

 ei ring College, Cooper's Hill; to the Professorship of 

 Mechanics and Mathematics, Olaus Henrici, Ph.D., F.R.S., of 

 University College, London ; to the Professorship of Physic, 

 1 diver Lodge, D.Sc, of University College, Liverpool. 



In a crowded house on Tuesday last the Convocation of the 

 University of Oxford passed the much-debated statute allowing 

 women to 1 nter for "certain of the honour examinations of the 

 University." The statute has been opposed on very different 

 grounds. The old Conservative Oxford School (fast becoming 

 extincl ansae', tie resident teachers) of com e objected to any 

 change in favour of the higher education of women ; with them 

 went a portion of the High Church parly, who look with disfavour 

 on any proposal tending to bring women into intellectual com- 

 petition with men. Others, again, opposed the statute on the 

 ground that it was unfair to men, who have to keep certain 

 terms and pass certain examinations within a specified time if 

 they wish to enter for an honour school, whereas the statute 

 allows women to enter for honours without the same preliminary 

 examinations, and without restrictions as to time and residence. 

 Others again feared an influx of young ladies into Oxford, 

 as likely to destroy the manliness of the undergraduates 

 and spoil the natural modesty of the lady students. To 

 these arguments thi iucci is which the present halls for ladies 

 in Oxford 1 .'.ali , the besl answer. Their presence 



has not revolutionised the University; they have not been a 

 stumbling-block t,, discipline nor a rock of offence to the Church.' 

 The women's examinations, conducted by the delegates, were 

 exactly on the same subjects, and the papers were set by the 

 same men, as in the men's honour examinations before this 

 statute passed. Now the same papers will serve for both, 

 trouble will be saved, and the women who obtain honours will 

 win a certificate universally recognised throughout the country. 

 Oxford is to be congratulated on Tuesday's vote. 



The Rede Lecture at Cambridge University will be delivered 

 on May 2S by Mr. Francis Galton, the subject of the lecture 

 being "The Measurement of Human Faculty." 



