AUGUST 7, 1902] 
NATURE re 
o 
five from July 27-31. The most destructive was that at the 
town of Los Alamos, at 1.20 a.m. on July 31. All the brick 
buildings were thrown to the ground, but the frame buildings 
generally escaped serious injury except to their windows. Not 
a chimney has been left standing. The shock lasted thirty 
seconds, and seems to have had a spiral motion. Goods were 
hurled from the shelves of the stores and piled in the middle of 
the rooms; even heavy desks were tossed about. The in- 
habitants ran into the streets in a panic, for in the morning 
between 7.25 and 7.30 there were three additional shocks, and 
just before nine two more. It is also reported that there 
were four severe shocks of earthquake in Los Alamos Valley 
on August 1. Several buildings which had survived the earlier 
shocks were badly cracked, and an immense structure near 
Los Alamos was turned partly round on its foundations. The 
earth continues to tremble at intervals, and the countryside is 
said to be changing appearance. A Reuter telegram from Leiria, 
Portugal, states that a violent earthquake shock was felt there at 
midnight on August 3 and was renewed at 6.45 a.m. on August 4. 
One shock was felt throughout the centre of Portugal and on the 
seaboard. The Central Meteorological Bureau of Italy announces 
that a severe earthquake shock was felt at Carraraat 11.35 p.m. 
on Monday, August 4. It was followed by two more shocks. 
Another earthquake shock is reported from Massa. The seismo- 
graphs at Siena, Florence, Padua, Rome and Rocca di Papa 
also registered disturbances. 
In the House of Commons on Monday, the decision to close 
the observatories at Ben Nevis and Fort William was again 
brought forward, and the First Lord of the Treasury was asked 
whether he would order an inquiry to be made into the distribu- 
tion by the Meteorological Council of the annual grant. of 
15,300/., so as to secure that an adequate allowance be made to 
these observatories. .In his reply, Mr. Balfour referred to ‘an 
inquiry held about twenty years ago, at the close of which the 
committee recommended that the inquiry should be repeated 
from time to time, a recommendation that has not been followed. 
In the circumstances he thought it would be right to have an 
investigation and to repeat it from time to time. . This would 
involve no slur or slight on the scientific committee which 
allocates the funds. 
A copy of the remarks made upon the subject of the Ben 
Nevis observatories by Sir Arthur Mitchell, honorary secretary 
of the Scottish Meteorological Society and of the directors of the 
Ben Nevis observatories, at the meeting of the Society on July 
23, has been received. 
the importance of observations at a high level is emphatically 
and increasingly recognised in the countries of Europe and in 
the United States of America. Both the high- and low-level 
observatories at Ben Nevis have been, all through their existence, 
under the sole management and control of the directors, by 
whom they were erected and to whom they belong. Having 
high-level observations to compare with suitably associated 
observations at sea level has a direct bearing on the study of 
meteorology broadly ; but it is also and everywhere. held that 
the possession of such observations may be reasonably expected 
to assist directly in weather forecasting. The directors started 
in 1883 with the intention of performing a big and costly experi- 
ment in atmospheric physics, which, in their opinion, ought to 
cover a sun-spot period, that is, from eleven to twelve years. 
This experiment they have been able to complete by the aid of 
public generosity. For the first seven years after 1883, when 
the observatory at the top of Ben Nevis was opened, there were 
no hourly observations at sea level for purposes of comparison, 
so that the experiment began in a complete form only twelve 
years ago, in 1890, when the low-level observatory at Fort- 
William was also opened. 
NO. 1710, VOL. 66] 
It is pointed out in this statement that | 
THE Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, will be 
closed as usual from to-morrow evening, August 8, until the 
morning of September ro. 
THE Reale Accademia dei Lincei has conferred on Mr, Marconi 
a’special prize of ten thousand francs under the Santoro founda- 
tion in recognition of his work in connection with wireless 
telegraphy. 
THE Bisset Hawkins gold medal of the Royal College of 
Physicians of London has been awarded to Dr. W. H. Power, 
F.R.S., principal medical officer to the Local Government Board. 
The medal was instituted in 1896 with the object of perpetu- 
ating the memory of the late Dr. Francis Bisset Hawkins, and is 
bestowed triennially on some duly qualified medical practitioner 
who has, during the preceding ten years, done good work in 
advancing sanitary science or in promoting public health. Dr. 
David Ferrier, F.R.S., will deliver the Harveian oration of 
the College on St. Luke’s day, October 18. The Bradshaw 
lecture will be delivered in November by Dr. C. J. Culling- 
worth. Dr. A. S. F. Griinbaum has been appointed Goul- 
stonian Lecturer and Dr. T. R. Glynn Lumleian lecturer for 
1903, and Dr. J. R. Bradford the Croonian lecturer for 1904. 
ON Friday last Sir Alfred Jones, chairman of the Liverpool 
School of Tropical Medicine, entertained at dinner the Duke of 
Northumberland and the Tropical Diseases Section of the British 
Medical Association, at the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool. In 
proposing the health of the Duke of Northumberland, Sir Alfred 
Jones mentioned that a friend had given a donation of 25,000/. 
for the study of tropical medicine at the Liverpool School, and 
through the energy and perseverance of Prof. Boyce the School 
was being endowed with 10,0007. The Duke of Northumber- 
land, in replying, said that he had been impressed with the im- 
portance of the efforts which were being made in the direction of 
ameliorating the conditions of tropical existence. In responding 
to the toast ‘‘ Tropical Medicine,” Sir W. Kynsey said it seemed 
extraordinary that in a wealthy country like England it was im- 
possible to get a penny from Government for these schools, 
which had been entirely dependent upon private benevolence. 
THE steamer America, with the whole of the Baldwin- 
Ziegler Arctic expedition, arrived on August 1 at Honningsvaag, 
in Northern Norway, and then proceeded to Tromsoe. Mr. 
Evelyn B. Baldwin, the leader of the expedition, reports as 
follows to Reuter’s Agency :—‘‘This year’s work has been 
successful. An enormous depot of condensed foods has been 
established by sledge on Rudolf Land within sight of the 
Italian expedition’s headquarters. A second depot has been 
formed in lat. 81 33, and a third depot at Kane Lodge, Greely 
Island, which has been newly charted as near the 81st 
degree of latitude. These large depots, together with the houses 
and stores left at Camp Ziegler, as well as provisions for the 
five ponies and 150 good dogs now on board, besides the pack 
itself, will afford means for a large Polar dash party next year. 
The fact that all the channels through Franz Josef Land 
remained blocked by ice during the autumn of I901 prevented 
the establishment of depots by steamer last year. The breaking 
| up of the ice early in June compelled us to use our reserve 
supply of coal, and hence our departure from Camp Ziegler on 
July 1 in order not to imperil the expedition. We dispatched 
15 balloons with 300 messages in June.. We have obtained the 
first moving pictures of Arctic life.; We discovered \Nansen’s 
hut, recovering the original document left there and securing 
paintings 6f the hut. We have also secured marine collections 
for the National Museum, new charts, &c.. Thirty men, with 
13 ponies, 170 dogs and 60 sledges, were employed in field work 
from January 21 to May 21, this severe work resulting in the | 
destruction of the sledges ; this and the depletion of the food 
for the ponies and the dogs rendered a return imperative.” 
