Oct. 26, 1882"! 



NA TURE 



6.U 



In conclusion I must draw attention to the excellent 

 opportunities which many of those residing in Britain 

 have for the observation of artificially produced earth 

 tremors. By these I mean the vibrations which are pro- 

 duced by our railway trains, our carriages, explosions at 

 mines and quarries, steam hammers, the falling of balls 

 used in the breaking of castings, and other means. All of 

 these vibrations I can state with confidence are capable 

 of being graphically recorded, and the value of a series 

 of such records to the practical seismologist it is hardly 

 necessary to dilate upon. 



Investigations of this description are the laboratory 

 work of the practical seismologist, and often lead to more 

 valuable results than those which are obtained from 

 actual earthquakes. Actual earthquakes are produced 

 by unknown causes, they come at unknown times, and 

 from unknown localities. With artificially produced 

 disturbances none of these difficulties have to be con- 

 tended with, the cause and the result are before us 

 simultaneously, and we are enabled to arrive at laws 

 which actual earthquakes would never yield to us. 



Another point to which I should like to draw attention 

 is the study of earth movements in general. Hitherto we 

 have only devoted our attention to the sudden and violent 

 movements which we call earthquakes. In addition to 

 these we have in nature movements of less amplitude 

 called earth tremors. Inasmuch as we now know that 

 these are probably a universal phenomenon, and at the 

 same time are in every probability governed bylaws simpler 

 than those which govern earthquakes which are usually 

 due to a complexity of causes, it certainly devolves upon 

 us to establish the necessary means for their investigation. 

 From the little we have learnt about earth tremors it is 

 not unlikely that they maybe to our continents what tides 

 are to our oceans, phenomena which are regular and law 

 abiding, and not like the earthquakes, which may be 

 compared to the storms of the ocean. 



In addition to these motions of small amplitude we 

 have many reasons for believing in the existence of 

 motions of our ground of great amplitude, but so slow in 

 period that hitherto they have been overlooked. 



In order to complete the study of earth motions we 

 have to add to seismology the study of earth tremors and 

 what might be called earth pulsations. 



As we have done so much for our skies, for our atmo- 

 sphere, and for our waters, we can surely do a little 

 towards the investigation of the movements of the earth 

 on which we live. 



Although these latter remarks have no direct connec- 

 tion with the work which has been accomplished in 

 Japan, they are nevertheless an outcome of such work, 

 and if they tend in any way to draw attention to a much 

 neglected study, an object will have been attained greater 

 than any which could be hoped for by diffusing a know- 

 ledge of the labours of those who dwell at our Antipodes. 



John Milne 



THE LATE PROFESSOR BALFOUR 

 T^HE meeting held last Saturday to establish a me- 

 x morial to the late Prof. Balfour was very largely 

 attended by all grades in the University, and among non- 

 residents by Professors Huxley, H. J. S. Smith, A W 

 Williamson, W. K. Parker, Ray Lankester, H. N. 

 Moseley, and A. M. Marshall and Mr. George Griffith, of 

 Harrow. The president of the Royal Society would have 

 been present but for his recent accident. The speakers, 

 including most of those mentioned above, and Professors 

 Paget, Humphry, Newton, and Westcott, bore unanimous 

 testimony to the high regard and affection in which the 

 lamented professor was held, to the original work he had 

 accomplished, and the high promise of his life, and to 

 the energy and success of his teaching. Dr. Paget 

 referred to Balfour's having abandoned his favourite 



pastime of deer-stalking in order not to inflict unneces- 

 sary suffering upon harmless animals, and his having 

 taken up instead that of Alpine climbing, in which he 

 met his death. Any memorial to him would, he hoped, 

 do something to perpetuate the spirit in which his scien- 

 tific achievements had been accomplished, which placed 

 him beside such men as Miller, Sedgwick, and Clerk 

 Maxwell. Mr. A. Sedgwick, late demonstrator with Bal- 

 four, spoke of the growth of the class in seven years from 

 ten to ninety students, and of the crushing nature of his 

 loss to the school he had attracted around him, for his per- 

 sonal intercourse and counsel was of the extremest value. 

 Prof. Huxley, in proposing " That the memorial take 

 the form of a fund, to be called the Balfour Fund, for the 

 promotion of research in biology, especially animal 

 morphology," said that after the addresses they had listened 

 to with painful interest, it would be superfluous for him to 

 add his personal testimony to the remarkable sagacity 

 and the remarkable characteristics of Prof. Balfour. It 

 was no exaggeration to say that in his eyes and to many 

 of his age he seemed to be like Lycidas, of whom Milton 

 wrote, "who died in his prime and hath not left his 

 peer." The remarkable capacity he exhibited was deve- 

 loped by a multitude of surrounding circumstances. He 

 was happy to say that he personally had contributed, 

 amid a multitude of more powerful forces, to that which 

 led to the development of his great powers. When Bal- 

 four was a young man, a paper he had written while at 

 Harrow School was sent to him for his judgment, and 

 again when Balfour was a candidate for a Fellowship at 

 Trinity College, he was one of the examiners. " Amid 

 many of my faults and failings during a long life," said 

 Prof. Huxley, " I do not reproach myself for neglecting to 

 recognise the capacity of the friend we have lost, 

 both in the paper written while at Harrow and during 

 the examination for the Fellowship at Trinity." He 

 would draw attention to two words in the resolu- 

 tion he proposed — viz., research and morphology. The 

 late Professor distinguished himself in both these di- 

 rections. In former days men were content with being 

 learned, but now we must not only know what is 

 known, but help to extend the bounds of knowledge. 

 This Balfour did. and his title as an eminent researcher 

 was undoubted. With regard to morphology, it was a 

 science until recently only known as a field of wide 

 speculation of German philosophers. It was now a new 

 learning, a great system of doctrine, established by an 

 enormous mass of carefully co-ordinated facts. Three 

 things were requisite to develop this new science: — 1. 

 Mastery of practical methods. 2. Accuracy of observa- 

 tion. 3. Vividness of imagination. He had never 

 met any one more mirvellously gifted with these three 

 great qualities than Prof. Balfour. If his unshrinking 

 modesty could have foretold this meeting, there would 

 not be any form of memorial more entirely grateful to 

 his feelings than the one proposed. A monument in 

 stone or brass would be inappropriate ; but to establish 

 through this fund a perennial spring of activity in the 

 direction of the study he pursued would be a more last- 

 ing and perfect memorial. And they might think of him 

 in the concluding words of " Lycidas " : — "Henceforth 

 thou art the genius of the shore, In thy large recom- 

 pense, and shalt be good To all that wander in that 

 perilous flood " 



Prof. Newton proposed "That the proceeds of the 

 fund be applied (1) to establish a studentship, the holder 

 of which shall devote himself to original research in 

 biology, especially animal morphology ; (2) to further, by 

 occasional grants of money, original research in the same 

 subject." He said that the room and the building in 

 which they were assembled reminded him that he felt and 

 entered for the first time into the full meaning of the Poet 

 Laureate's words — " But O ! for the touch of a vanish'd 

 hand And the-sound of a voice that is still." With refer- 



