53 + 



NATURE 



{April %, 1886 



when used in its ordinary chemical sense of a root (Latin, 

 radicula), basis, or common ingredient of a series of chemical [ 

 compounds? 



Surely the word is a substantive, and, like similar derivatives, 

 should be spelt "radicle," and not as the adjective "radical." 

 I hope, however, that those who spell it in the latter way will 

 be able to adduce a partica/ of reasoning in favour of their 

 practice. 



I am quite aware of the existence of a "leading artic<j/' 

 called a " Radical " in politics ; but in this case there is refer- 

 ence to one who desires a " radical " change in existing institu- 

 tions. If, however, we are to consider him as "a common 

 ingredient in a series of Caucuses," then Lshould maintain that 

 here also the spelling should be amended. H. G. Madan 



Eton College, April 5 



An Earthquake Invention 



Referring to Prof. Milne's letter in Nature of March ii 

 (p. 438), I have to say: — (l)That what I, as representing my 

 father, have to complain of is that in a British Association 

 Committee's Report describing experiments made with an ascis- 

 matic arrangement, and which appeared in the Transactions of 

 the British Association of 18S4, the writer thereof, who appears 

 to have been Prof. Milne alone, did not acknowledge that Mr. 

 David Stevenson had invented, described, and constructed pre- 

 cisely such apparatus in 1868, facts which Prof. Milne cannot 

 deny, and yet took the honour to himself ; and, when this was 

 pointed out, he then set up a claim for Mr. Mallet which Mr. 

 Mallet assuredly never made, and would have been the first to 

 repudiate. 



(2) Prof. Milne in that Report praised the aseismatic 

 joint as a most useful invention, introducing a new and 

 valuable principle of construction for earthquake-affected 

 countries, and though he may now think otherwise, yet the 

 account given in the Tsugisaki light-keeper's letter, quoted by 

 him, of the effects of a shock at that lighthouse, in place of 

 showing the uselessness of the apparatus, in my opinion proves 

 the reverse, as the shock is reported to have been very seveie ; 

 and had there been no aseismatic joint under the illuminating 

 apparatus, it would have been so seriously damaged as to have 

 been rendered useless, in place of which the light was only 

 extinguished for five minutes. 



Mr. Stevenson, in his original ])aper, with characteristic 

 caution, carefully calls it an apparatus to miligatc the effcit of 

 cartltijiiake shocks. Mr. Kinjero Fugicura, Engineer in Cliief 

 to the Lighthouse Department of Japan, writing January 11, 

 1886, says he is unable at present to give any definite opinion 

 as to the merits of the aseismatic arrangements, because, since 

 he put them in operation when he became Engineer in Cliief, 

 the occurrence of earthquakes has been veiy rare indeed ; and 

 further, he is of opinion that really to get at the bottom of the 

 matter, two experimental tables would have to be placed at the 

 same locality side by side, one with the aseismatic arrange- 

 ments, and the other fixed, so that the behaviour of the two 

 tables might be directly compared. To which I might add 

 that the whole lighthouse (or any building of equal size), like 

 that constructed and sent to Japan by my father, but which was 

 unfortunately lost at sea, should be rebuilt and tried against 

 ordinary houses unprovided with my father's invention. 



(3) Prof. Milne asks what I claim as coming under Mr, 

 Stevenson's invention. I claim of course everything which 

 employs the same principle, and most distinctly the house 

 carried on shot or "cast-iron sand," as Prof. Milne calls it, and 

 which he lately erected in Japan, as well as the building 

 described by him in the B. A. Report, p. 248, for 1884, as 

 " resting on four cast-iron balls," and the action of which has 

 been so j^erfect as to have actually "destroyed" all the "sudden 

 motion or shock," and recorded by him as a notable earth- 

 quake. 



I will not further trespass on your space, but refer your 

 readers to the former correspondence on this subject in Nature. 



D. A. Stevenson 

 84, George Street, Edinburgh, March 22 



VR. T. SPENCER COBBOLD, F.R.S., F.L.S. 

 "PjR. COBBOLD was the son of the Rev. Richard 

 ■*-^ Cobbold of Wortham in Suffolk. He was born in 

 182S, and educated at Charterhouse. He matriculated 



at the University of Edinburgh in November 1847, after 

 having, in accordance with the mode of preparation for 

 the profession of medicine then regarded as most advan- 

 tageous, served a three years' apprenticeship with Mr. 

 Crosse of Norwich, one of the most eminent and distin- 

 guished surgeons of his time. He thus came up to the 

 University provided with a large amount of practical 

 information, and even as a first year student possessed 

 great dexterity in dissection and in the making of 

 museum preparations, and was a skilful draughtsman. 

 After working diligently for a year under Prof Goodsir, 

 he was appointed by that great anatomist as his prosector, 

 and under his influence was led to abandon practical 

 medicine for the inore attractive study of morphology ; 

 his first original research being an anatomical essay on 

 the Canal of Petit, which he offered as his graduation 

 thesis, and for which a gold medal was awarded him by 

 the Medical Faculty. 



Like all other earnest Edinburgh students of that time 

 he took an active part in the debates of the Royal 

 Medical Society, and became in 1852 its senior Pre- 

 sident. In the same year, not many months after his 

 graduation, he was appointed Curator of the Anatomical 

 Museum, and became a prominent leader in the bio- 

 logical work of the School. As Curator he gave lectures 

 on comparative osteology, and added largely to the col- 

 lections. He also worked out the material for his article 

 " Ruminantia," which appeared in the " Cyclopaedia of 

 Anatomy and Physiology" in 1856. 



In 1856 Dr. Cobbold removed to London, and soon 

 afterwards began to devote himself to the study of animal 

 parasites, and particularly to the experimental investi- 

 gation of their life-history, on wdiich subject he made 

 during the following years a number of important com- 

 munications to the Linnean and other Societies. In 1864 

 his well-known work on " Helminthology " appeared, to 

 which in 1S69 he added a supplement containing his later 

 researches. He subsequently published a manual of the 

 parasitic diseases of domestic aniinals, a work on the 

 grouse disease, and various other works relating to 

 diseases of the same class. 



In 1 868 he was appointed by the Trustees of the 

 British Museum to the Swiney Professorship of Geology, 

 to which subject he had been led, under the influence of 

 Prof Edward Forbes, to devote much attention during 

 his residence in Edinburgh. The greater number of 

 these lectures were given at the Royal School of Mines, 

 and were largely attended. 



Dr. Cobbold's reputation as a comparative pathologist 

 will rest on his treatise on the Entozoa. His most im- 

 portant contributions to morphology are his article on 

 Ruminantia, his experimental researches on Tcrnia 

 iiiedioaincUata and other Cestodes, on Trichina, and on 

 Distoma lice matobi mil, and his recent paper on the para- 

 sites of elephants. His last communication to the 

 Linnean Society was read on March 4. 



THE GEOLOGISTS' ASSOCIATION AT THE 

 SCIENCE SCHOOLS 



ON Saturday, March 20, a party of over a hundred 

 members of the Geologists' Association visited the 

 Science Schools at South Kensington, by permission of the 

 Science and Art Department, and were conducted over 

 the building by Prof J. W. Judd, F.R.S. The visitors 

 inet in the entrance-hall at 2.30, and then seated them- 

 selves in the large Chemical Lecture Theatre, where Prof 

 Judd gave a sketch of the history and development of 

 the Schools and of the methods of 'study therein followed. 

 At the conclusion of this address the party walked slowly 

 through the various laboratories and lecture-rooms — 

 metallurgical, physical, and chemical— gradually ascend- 

 ing to the upper stories of the lofty building, where are 

 situated the biological and geological rooms. In one of 



