372 



NA TURE 



[August 14, 1884 



cumbed. Of the latter, six were bitten by mad dogs, three of 

 them becoming mad, eight were subjected to intra-venous inocu- 

 lation, all becoming mad, and five to inoculation by trepanning, 

 all becoming mad. The result is decisive ; but the Committee 

 will now inoculate a large number of fresh dogs, and will com- 

 pare these with an equal number of dogs not inoculated. It will 

 likewise investigate the question whether after a dog has been 

 bitten inoculation with the attenuated virus will prevent any 

 consequences from the bite. M. Pasteur will lay before the 

 International Health Congress at Copenhagen results which, as 

 the Committee remarks, " are so honourable for French science, 

 and give it a fresh claim on the gratitude of mankind." 



A correspondent living about two hundred yards from the 

 river at West Chelsea complains that mosquitos first appeared 

 sparingly in the middle of July, but are now almost nightly 

 visitors. There is too much reason to fear, he states, that they 

 are thoroughly acclimatised in this part.— Mosquitos and gnats 

 are synonymous terms. Whenever the heat is greater than usual 

 we constantly receive notices similar to the above. Possibly it 

 renders the gnats more vicious, and at the same time the object 

 of their attacks more irritable. Gnats (mosquitos) inhabit water 

 (not sea-water) in their early stages, and from this reason it is 

 practically impossible to import them, unless intentionally. The 

 conditions at West Chelsea at the present moment are particu- 

 larly favourable to the welfare of gnats (see article " Mosquito " 

 in the new edition of the " Encyclopedia Britannica "). 



The eighth International Medical Congress, of which the 

 King of Denmark has consented to be the patron, was opened 

 on Sunday in the Grand Hall of National Industry, Copenhagen, 

 in the presence of the King and Queen of Denmark, the King 

 and Queen of the Hellenes, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess 

 of Denmark, and the rest of the Royal Family, the Danish 

 Ministers, the Corps Diplomatique, the official authorities, civil 

 and military, and delegates from Great Britain and Ireland, 

 Germany, France, Russia, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Greece, 

 Switzerland, Japan, New York, Columbia, Kentucky, and Cali- 

 fornia. Addresses were delivered by the President, Prof. Panum, 

 the Secretary, Dr. Lange, Sir James Paget, Prof. Virchow, and 

 Prof. Pasteur. The assembly consisted of about 1500 members. 



Earthquakes have been frequent and widespread during the 

 past few days. The inhabitants of the towns and villages along the 

 whole range of the Alban hills were alarmed at two a.m. on 

 August 7 by a sharp shock of earthquake, followed by another at a 

 quarter past three. The direction taken by the wave was through 

 Velletri, Nemi, Ariccia, Albano, Castel Gandolfo, and Rocca di 

 Papa and Frascati. The shocks were most severely felt at 

 Rocca di Papa, but no damage was done beyond the felling of 

 two chimneys at Ariccia. At half-past three a severe shock, 

 quickly followed by another, was distinctly felt at Rome, and 

 that which shook the Alban hills extended also as far as Porto 

 dAnzio, on the coast. 



An earthquake shock shook the most solid buildings in New 

 York at two o'clock on Sunday afternoon, and produced a sen- 

 sation like that on board a steamer under way. At Brooklyn 

 the residents were frightened into running out of their houses. 

 The earthquake suddenly moved along the Alleghany Mountains 

 and their eastern slopes, from Virginia to Vermont, in a direc- 

 tion from south-west towards north-east, extending over the 

 entire country from the mountains to the ocean. The most 

 southerly city in which the shocks were noticed was Washing- 

 ton, and the most northerly Brattleborough, Vermont. Two 

 distinct shocks, each of about two seconds' duration, with an 

 interval of about four seconds, were generally felt, while in 

 New York and further eastwards a slight third shock was expe- 

 rienced a few minutes afterwards. The earthquake was ob- 



served at nine minutes past two o'clock in the afternoon at 

 Philadelphia, and somewhat later to the eastward of this city. 

 It was most severe in New York City, Connecticut, and Boston. 

 The vibration was slighter elsewhere. 



Slight earthquake shocks, recurring at short intervals, have 

 recently been felt at Massowah. 



Prof. Milne, of Tokio, Japan, writing to the Times on the 

 subject of the Essex earthquake, concludes as follows : — " Before 

 earth movements can be generally understood, it is necessary 

 that they should be observed as other natural phenomena are 

 observed. A reason that has been expressed against the esta- 

 blishment of seismometers in British observatories is that in 

 Britain earthquakes are a rare occurrence. Such a reason ap- 

 pears to arise from an imperfect acquaintance with the pheno- 

 mena to be observed. Earth-tremors, which are minute earth- 

 quakes, may be observed in Britain every day. Messrs. George 

 and Horace Darwin have shown that such movements are of 

 common occurrence in Cambridge. Then there are the slow 

 earthquakes or earth-pulsations, like those which I have from 

 time to time observed in Tokio. Whether these exist in Britain 

 cannot be known until they are sought for. That they existed 

 on the outer rim of the area where the Essex earthquake was 

 felt is tolerably certain. It is also certain that shortly after great 

 earthquakes — as, for instance, some which have shaken South 

 America — pulse-like motions have been observed in the bubbles 

 of astronomical levels at places as distant as St. Petersburg. 

 When we consider that we are observing meteorological changes 

 with which earth-tremors have a close relationship, that we ob- 

 serve the tides, magnetic and electric changes in our earth, 

 and the escape of gas in our mines, with all of which earth- 

 movements may be closely associated, when we possess so 

 many earthquake-shaken colonies, and send our Navy and 

 mercantile marine to all the earthquake countries of the world, 

 it would certainly not be an unreasonable undertaking for us to 

 investigate the ill-understood phenomena which continually 

 occur beneath our feet. We study our oceans, our atmosphere, 

 the sky above us, and, I may add, the ice at our poles, while 

 the changes in the earth on which we live are almost neglected." 



Messrs. Cotteau and Korthals, members of the French 

 Mission sent by the Minister of Public Instruction to explore 

 the Krakatoa volcano, write from Batavia on June 2 that the object 

 of the expedition has been fully realised. Soon after their arrival 

 at Batavia on May 14, the Dutch Colonial Government placed 

 at their disposal a small steamer, on board of which they started 

 for the Sunda Strait on the 21st. Along the west coast a well- 

 marked line, running at an elevation of from fifty to eighty 

 feet above sea-level, indicated the limit reached by the terrible 

 wave that spread disaster far and wide towards the end of August 

 1SS3. The plantations had been swept away, and all the houses 

 of this populous district, together with the town of Anjer, had 

 completely disappeared. On the 23rd the steamer cast anchor 

 at the head of Lampong Bay on the south coast of Sumatra, 

 whence a visit was paid to the Telok-Betong district. Here the 

 extensive and thickly-settled coastlands had assumed the aspect 

 of a desolate swamp, relieved here and there by a few bamboo 

 huts recently set up. Nearly three miles inland lay the steamer 

 Bormw, which had been borne on the crest of the wave into 

 the forest, where it now forms a sort of bridge across a small 

 stream. On the 25th the formerly fertile and densely-peopled 

 islands of Sibuku and Sibesi were successively visited and 

 found to be entirely covered by a deposit of dry mud several 

 yards thick and furrowed by deep crevasses. Of the in- 

 habitants, all had perished to a man. Continuing the trip on 

 the 26th to Krakatoa itself, the mission was surprised to note 

 the complete disappearance of the three islands of Steers, Cal- 

 meyer, and the islet east of Verlaten, which had risen above the 



