AUGUST 14, 1902] 
type is good and the illustrations form an important 
feature, being artistic and at the same time expressive 
and useful. 
Physiology for Beginners. 
F.R.S. Pp. viii + 124. 
1902.) Price Is. 
IN this tiny volume the author has set himself the difficult 
task, as he describes it in his preface, of putting in simple 
language the essential facts concerning the structure and 
functions of the human body. 
The book is intended for junior students who have no 
previous knowledge of the subject, and it may be said 
that the author has put forward the main essentials of 
the subject in an attractive way such as ought to engage 
the interest of school children, for whom the book is 
obviously intended. The author clothes his subject in 
the homeliest possible phraseology, avoiding technical 
terms and hard names so far as can be done in dealing 
with such an abstruse subject, and instead of giving dull 
definitions he suggests and then answers questions 
which must arouse interest in the juvenile mind. 
Although mainly written for use as an elementary 
school book, the volume may be recommended to anyone 
who wishes to obtain some knowledge of the functions of 
the different organs of the body without the trouble of a 
detailed or technical study of the subject. 
The book is artistically got up and adorned with many 
clear and well-drawn illustrations of the subject-matter. 
B. MOORE. 
Die Philosophie August Comte's. By L. Lévy-Brihl. 
German translation by H. Molenaar. Pp. 286. 
(Leipzig: Diirr’schen Buchhandlung, 1902.) Price 
Mk. 6. 
THISs is a careful translation into German of a full and 
sympathetic study of Comte’s positivist philosophy in 
all its aspects. M. Lévy-Bruhl is not one of those 
more cautious disciples who, like Littré, rejected Comte’s 
religion in the name of his philosophy. He boldly 
defends the whole later development with its curious 
substitute for Catholicism as anecessary consequence of 
the original Comtian conception of a reform of society 
operating by means of a reform of philosophy. The 
actual subject of his book is, however, the philosophy 
apart from the subsequent developments. He treats 
with lucidity and knowledge in his first book of the 
foundations of the positivist doctrine, the alleged “law 
of the three stages,” the classification of the sciences 
and the concept of law. In books ii. and iii. he presents 
a sketch of the natural and social sciences, exhibiting their 
interrelation. The concluding book is devoted to an 
exposition of the positivist ethics. The translation 
reads well and pleasantly, and makes one wish that we 
in England, where Comte is more talked about than 
studied, possessed a statement of his doctrine at once so 
lucid and so concise. ACE a dy. 
Elementary Coal Mining. By George L. Kerr. Pp. 
225. (London: Charles Griffin and Co., Ltd. 1902.) 
Price 3s. 6d. 
Turis volume “is meant as an introductory manual to 
the larger and more advanced text-books.” The subject- 
matter is dealt with in fourteen chapters, at the end of 
each of which there are examination questions. The 
information is given concisely and in a form adapted 
for easy assimilation by students preparing for the 
examinations held under the Education Department 
and the County Councils and under the Home Office 
for under-managers’ certificates. There is no striking 
novelty in arrangement or in the matter dealt with. 
The 200 illustrations are good and clear. Several of 
them appear to have been borrowed from Mr. Herbert 
W. Hughes’s well-known text-book, with no mention of 
the source. 
No. 1711, VOL. 66] 
By Leonard Hill, M.B., 
(London: Edward Arnold, 
NATURE 
369 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
[Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 
pressed by his correspondents. Netther can he undertake 
to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 
manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. 
No notice zs taken of anonymous communications.) 
Earthquake of May 28 at the Cape, and 
Coincident Meteorological Effects. 
As certain peculiar meteorological phenomena seem to have 
been closely associated with the earthquake felt in the Cape 
Peninsula on May 28, the following particulars of this occurrence 
seem to deserve notice. 
After being practically calm all day, a loud sound resembling 
a clap of thunder or the rumbling of approaching heavy waggons 
was heard about 11.45 p.m. (Cape mean time of 22}° east), 
followed in Cape Town and Green Point by a heavy downpour 
of rain, and in the suburbs by a severe squall of wind and rain; 
practically simultaneous with the sound there occurred a shaking 
and rattling of windows and doors; some state they felt also 
a distinct shock, others that their beds rocked, while informa- 
tion was received of the cracking of the walls of at least two 
dwelling houses. The wind-squall was strong enough to uproot 
or blow down trees in some of the eastern suburbs. One 
gentleman, whose written account is in our possession, states 
that ‘‘it fairly shook the room and its contents which I occupy 
at Rosebank ; shortly afterwards a similar sound (tremor ?) was 
felt ; it lasted only a few seconds and died away.” Dogs were 
apparently conscious of the occurrence, one which was never 
known to be affected by thunder or lightning moving about and 
whining in a peculiar manner, while a parrot indicated by its 
screeching that it was sensible of something unusual happening. 
Our meteorological records show that rain fell (except on May 
19) every day from May 17 to May 24, amounting to 3°10 
inches at the Royal Observatory and to 7°45 inches at Newlands. 
Between the 24th and 28th, although no rain fell, there was 
‘almost an entire absence of drying winds, being chiefly light 
from the N.W., from which direction comes the bulk of the 
Cape Peninsula rainfall. 
Barometric pressure was high!, 30'071 inches at 8 a.m. on 
May 27, but fell steadily to 29°775 inches at 6 p.m. on May 
28, after which it remained stationary, so far as hourly eye- 
readings showed, until 11 p.m. ; between 11 p.m. and midnight 
it fell to 29°717 inches, and rose rapidly to 29°771 inches at 
12.15 a.m. on May 29, to 29°809 inches at 12.25 a.m., and to 
29'817 at 12.30 a.m., unusually large and rapid fluctuations for 
the Cape Peninsula, and suggesting at once the presence of 
thunderstorms in the neighbourhood. These rapid variations 
in pressure might account for the rumbling sound, on the sup- 
position of it being thunder, also for the wind-squall, and even 
for the rattling of doors and windows (not affected by ordinary 
winds), but fails to account for the ‘‘ rocking ” of the beds, the 
cracking of walls and the unusual behaviour of the dog already 
mentioned, all these inducing the belief that an actual ‘‘ earth- 
quake ” was experienced. 
No record of any seismic disturbance was, however, shown 
on the seismometer at the Royal Observatory. 
The lightkeeper at Cape Point makes these remarks on his 
meteorological schedule for May :—‘‘ 28th: wind S.E. toS.W., 
light ; silent lightning from N. to N.W. at 8 p.m., then thick 
fog from 10.30 p.m., and a light drizzling shower at I1.45 
p.m. Fog and rain till midnight, then thunder and lightning 
at midnight ; again rain off and on from 1.40 a.m. till 8 a.m, on 
May 29.” 
Through the courtesy of Mr. D. E. Hutchins, Conservator o. 
Forests, the writer has been enabled to examine his barogram 
obtained at Cape Town for the period between Tuesday, May 27, 
and Sunday, June 1. This record shows a dip in the curve 
occurring after 11 p.m. on May 28. Similar irregularities are 
recorded for the early mornings of May 29 and 31; these 
too were associated with thunderstorms, but may be connected 
with the West Indian eruptions of about the same date, an 
account of which is given in your issue of June 5. 
In the absence of fuller information than is in our possession 
at present, no definite connection can be traced, but these 
phenomena seem to be closely related one to the other. At 
least, it will be admitted that a comparison of this barographic 
curve with the diary of events in the West Indies shows some 
1 Corrected to 32° Fahr., but not to sea-level; approximate height of 
barometer, 4o feet. 
