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« Annales,” which has just appeared, devoted mainly to meteor- 
ological and climatic inquiries, is perhaps of a modest character 
viewed from a scientific standpoint; but it shows that the 
present director, M. Eginitis, is alive to the importance of 
creating a broader scientific interest throughout the country, 
which may be productive of greater energy and lead to the 
establishment of a well-supported institution. If this be the 
intention of the director, the means he has employed are ex- 
cellent. For M. Eginitis has endeavoured to interest a number 
of the better instructed class, such as civil engineers, professors 
of mathematics in the colleges and schoolmasters, in meteor- 
ological and seismological inquiries, and has induced the 
Government to provide a simple instrumental equipment at 
stations where it could be properly employed. The result is 
that he has distributed throughout Greece and the Ionian Isles 
a number of centres whence climatic observations are regularly 
forwarded to the central observatory at Athens and there 
reduced. 
The results for the years 1894~9 are printed in this volume, 
and we regard the fact that the dormant energies of a_ large 
number of people are interested, and the habit of continuous 
observation encouraged, as of greater importance than the actual 
observations collected. The public is being trained to expect 
a certain amount of scientific work from the Government 
officials, and demands for a further advance will be made and 
will be granted, when urged by competent observers backed by 
a growing scientific opinion. We would urge M. Eginitis 
steadily to pursue the methods which he has introduced, and 
which cannot but be productive of a lasting and beneficial 
result. 
Two memoirs from the director accompany the volume, one 
a discussion of the observations of meteors made at the ob- 
servatory, the other on the distribution of earthquakes through- 
out the day and year asrecorded at the Grecian stations. In 
1899, M. Eginitis reports 567 earthquake shocks, of which 271 
occurred in the spring against 62 in the summer months, and 
this peculiarity is in general agreement with a more extended 
inquiry embracing the period 1893-8. With regard to the 
relative position of the earth and moon, in which the latter 
might be presumed to have some slight effect in displacing the 
arrangement of internal rocks as the consequence of a tidal flow, 
M. Eginitis finds that there is no noticeable connection be- 
tween the frequency of seismic disturbance and the position of 
the moon in its orbit. A description of the effects experienced 
on the occasion of the earthquake at Triphylie on January 22, 
1899, concludes this section. 
VIBRATIONS OF BRIDGES. 
“THE last volume issued by the Earthquake Investigation 
Committee of Japan published in a foreign language is 
“On the Deflection and Vibration of Railway Bridges ”—a 
subject which, although not seismological, is an excellent 
illustration of investigations which seismologists have been 
tempted to pursue. , 
The author, Dr. F. Omori, experimented on twelve railway 
bridge girders, the spans of which varied between 20 and 200 
feet. The instruments used to record the bridge vibrations 
were a pair of seismographs such as are used for recording 
horizontal motion, and a horizontal lever seismograph for 
vertical motion. This latter instrument is here called a 
deflectometer. The quantities measured were the deflectzon of 
girders, or the total amount of bending caused by the passage of 
rolling stock, and the vertical transverse and longitudinal vzbra- 
zzons, which latter are almost 727 when the speed of a passing 
train is either very slow or at a maximum, when the speed has a 
certain value. The incentive to this work was a question re- 
specting the stability of the Rokugo-gawa Bridge, which was 
the first large bridge built in Japan. It was put upin 1875, 
a time when the rolling stock was somewhat lighter than that 
now in use. Oddly enough, the vibrations and deflections of 
this same bridge, and also others, were investigated in 1895 
with apparatus similar to that now employed, and had 
Dr. Omori known this, it is possible that he would have 
compared the apparent state of the bridge at that date with 
what it was found to be five years later. 
An account of this earlier work, with reference to that of 
others, as, for example, the seismometric measurements made 
by Prof. J. A. Ewing on the new Tay Bridge, will be found in 
Engineering, January 24, 1896. 
NO. 1709, VOL, 66] 
NAT OCKE 
[JuLy 31, 1902 
The mechanical time marker used to determine the speed at 
which the record-receiving surface was moved, which is a deter- 
mination of great importance when estimating vibrational 
periodicities, is apparently very similar to a contrivance largely 
used in seismometry in 1882 (see Zvams. Seis. Soc., vol. iv. p. 
97, Fig. 8). ; 
A point not touched upon is a comparison between values 
given to displacements as measured by seismographs and as 
determined by the direct methods employed by engineers. 
Previous investigators have done a little in this direction, but 
before the confidence of the practical man can be obtained it 
is clearly necessary that this work should be extended. The 
results which, however, have been arrived at respecting the 
strength and rigidity of various types of iron girders by this 
neglected method of investigation appear to be worthy of con- 
sideration by the builders of bridges. In the Zrdbebenwarte 
of last year there are three notices of Dr. Omori’s important 
and carefully conducted investigations, which are now followed 
by the advertisement of an instrument maker who is prepared 
to supply engineers with apparatus designed for this parucular 
class of work, 
REPORT ON UNIVERSITY COLLEGES. 
yay REPORT upon the work of university colleges has been 
issued as a Blue-book and contains much information as 
to the provision for higher education in various parts of the 
country. An annual grant of 25,000/. is made by the Govern- 
ment in aid of certain university colleges, and the character 
and quality of the work done, with special reference to the 
difference between work of an elementary character and that of 
a more advanced nature, is tested by occasional inspection. 
A visit of inspection was held in 1896 by Mr. T. H. Warren 
and Prof. G. D. Liveing, and another was made last year by 
Dr. H. G. Woods and Dr. Alex. Tlill. The colleges visited 
were :— University College, London, King’s College, London, 
Bedford College for Women (University of London), the Owens 
College, Manchester, University College, Liverpool, Yorkshire 
College, Leeds, the University of Birmingham, University 
College, Bristol, Durham College of Science, Newcastle-on- 
Tyne, University College, Nottingham, Firth College, Sheffield, 
University College, Dundee, Reading College, the Royal Albert 
Memorial College, Exeter, and Hartley College, Southampton. 
As has already been announced, the Reading College and the 
Hartley College, Southampton, have only recently been added 
to the list of university colleges, of which there are now fifteen 
which participate in the Government grant. 
The present report is almost entirely made up of descriptions 
of the buildings and laboratories of each of the colleges, main 
lists of work, organisation, and position of various departments 
of arts and sciences. Preceding this is a general statement by 
Drs. Wood and Hill, and following it a report by Mr. H. Higgs 
upon the financial position of the colleges. A few of the points 
touched upon by Drs. Wood and Hill are mentioned below. 
Plan of Buildings.—Anyone who makes the round of the 
university colleges is certain to develop in his own mind an 
ideal scheme of college buildings. Our own observations have 
led us to the conclusion that it is a mistake for a college to invest 
a large portion of its capital in buildings which. cannot readily 
be adapted and extended to meet changing needs. We could 
cite cases in which much money has been spent upon the material 
fabric of a laboratory, whereas the want of funds to provide an 
adequate modern equipment seriously reduces the effectiveness 
of its work. The demands of science are constantly changing. 
It is therefore desirable that funds should be so husbanded as to 
allow of the provision of new ‘apparatus and appliances of all 
kinds as they are called for. In this connection we feel that it 
is not too much to say that we have seen no single college in 
which.adequate funds were available for departmental expendi- 
ture. A few departments of particular colleges which have been 
housed and equipped by private munificence are notable excep- 
tions, but in the large majority of cases the funds assigned to 
departmental libraries, apparatus, lecture illustrations, &c., are 
altogether insufficient. 
Statistics of Progress. —The general result of our observations 
and inquiries is to show that very remarkable progress has been 
made by the university colleges during the last five years. The 
great, we might almost say immense, growth is proved by the 
following statistics :—(1) The total amount of the benefactions 
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