Al'RIL 23, 1908] 



NA TURE 



597 



(ransmits large wuvi-^ wilh a constant VL-ioi]ty. In tnc 

 case of the Californian i-arthquake, which originated on 

 fault lines on the western side of that country, 1 should 

 imafjinc the reflecting sin face Vo be the Sierras, 200 miles 

 distant. The wave group would travel to these mountains 

 and back in about four ininutes, and this is approximately 

 the time interval between the tw'o first large wave groups 

 in seismograms I have of that disturbance. .After the 

 Jirst echo or echoes, an earthquake usually dies out as a 

 series of surgings which frequently have a striking 

 similarity to each other. One explanation of these rhyth- 

 mical recurring groups is that they simply represent times 

 when the movement of the ground has synchronised with 

 the natural period of the recording instrument. Although 

 (he terminal vibrations seen on a seismogram may be 

 attributed to this cause, it does not exclude the idea that 

 rhythmical beats at an origin may result in rhythmical 

 responses at a distance. 



Side-issues of seismology are quite as instructive as the 

 information we derive from the records of earthquakes. 

 We have already referred to light effects which accom- 

 pany large earthquakes. This, as we have seen, led up 

 to investigations connected with micro-organisms. A long 

 series of experiments, which commenced in Japan and were 

 continued in the Isle of \\'ight, involved a series of investi- 

 gations bearing upon the transpiration of plants. The 

 fundamental object of these experiments was to determine 

 whether valleys always retained the same form. Did they 

 open and shut? To answer the question I set up on the 

 two sides of a valley horizontal pendulums identical with 

 those which are used to record teleseismic motion. These 

 instruments, which are by photographic means self-record- 

 ing, are exceedingly sensitive to small changes in level. 

 What I found was that on fine days the booms of these 

 instruments moved in opposite directions, each away from 

 the bed of the valley. -At night the motions were reversed, 

 and the booins moved towards each other, that is, towards 

 the bottom of the valley. Several instruments were 

 employed, and the records were confirmed by the move- 

 ments of the bubbles of sensitive levels. During the day 

 the records indicated that the sides of the valley opened, 

 and at night they closed. The two valleys I worked upon 

 behaved like ordinary flowers, they opened when the sun 

 was shining and closed at night. The best explanation I 

 can offer is that the phenomenon is largely dependent 

 upon the transpiration of plants. This is marked during 

 the day, but not at night. On a bright day a sunflower 

 or a cabbage may discharge 2 lb. of aqueous vapour. .\ 

 square yard of grass will give off 10 lb. or 12 lb. The 

 result of this is that during the day underground drainage 

 has not received its full supply of water to load the 

 bottom of the valley. i\t night time, when plants' tran- 

 spiration is reduced, subsurface drainage is increased, and 

 the load at the bottom of the valley is also increased. 

 Therefore, at night the bottom of a valley, in consequence 

 of its increased water load, is depressed, and this is 

 accompanied by a closing of its sides. During the day 

 the load runs off, and the valley opens. This may also 

 explain why soak wells in valleys and streams carry less 

 water during the day than they do at night, and at the 

 same time it suggests that the side of a valley is a bad 

 place for an observatory. Every day as the world turns 

 before the sun, lamp-posts and tall structures salute the 

 same, whilst manv valleys open. At night time these 

 movements are reversed. 



One phenomenon which accompanies all large earth- 

 quakes, which, however, has never yet received the atten- 

 tion it deserves, is the influence which great disasters 

 have exercised upon the emotions. Immediately after the 

 Kingston earthquake, we read of the dazed and almost 

 insane condition of the people. Many were affected with 

 an outburst of religious ecstasy, thinking the last day had 

 come. The negro population camped on the racecourse, 

 and spent their time in singing hymns. Somewhat similar 

 scenes took place in Chili ; men and women ran hither 

 and thither, mad with terror and devoid of reason. .Amid 

 shrieks and sobs, and the wailing of a multitude, an " Ora 

 pro Nobis " or a " Pater Xoster " might now and then 

 Ije heard. In early civilisations underground thunderings 

 have so far excited the iinagination that subterranean 

 monsters or personages have been conjured into existence, 



NO. 2008, VOL. 77] 



and these in many instances have played a part in primitive 

 religions. At the time of an earthquake in Japan, the 

 children are told that the shaking is due to the movement 

 of a fish which is buried beneath their country, and in 

 Japan we find references to this fish in the pictorial art, 

 glyptic art, literature, and everyday conversation, all of 

 which would be unintelligible if we did not know the story 

 of the earthquake fish. In other countries the subter- 

 ranean creature will be a pig, a tortoise, an elephant, or 

 some other aniinal. The most interesting myths, how- 

 ever, relate to underground personages. The forty-five 

 Grecian Titans, who were of gigantic stature and of pro- 

 portionate strength, were confined in the bowels of the 

 earth. According to the poets, the flames of Etna pro- 

 ceeded from the breath of Enceladus, and when he turned 

 his weary side the whole island of Sicily was shak(-n to 

 its foundations. Neptune was not only a god of the 

 oceans, rivers, and fountains, but with a blow of his 

 trident he could create earthquakes at pleasure. The 

 worship of Neptune was established in almost every part 

 of the Grecian world. The Livians, in particular, vener- 

 ated him, and looked upon him as the first and greatest 

 of the gods. The Palici were born in the bowels of the 

 i earth, and were worshipped with great ceremonies by the 

 Sicilians. In a superstitious age the altars of the Palici 

 were stained with the blood of human sacrifices. In 

 Roman mythology, two very familiar deities are Pluto 

 and Vulcan. These and a host of other deities, the out- 

 come of imagination, excited by displays of seismic and 

 volcanic activity, we meet with every day in picture 

 galleries, in museums, in literature, and in our daily 

 papers. The fact that we are enjoined not to make any 

 graven image of that which is in the earth beneath suggests 

 that in the time of Moses a certain form of worship called 

 for some correction. Over and above adding a clause to 

 the decalogue, large earthquakes have in very many ways 

 affected ' religions. After the earthquake which shook 

 England on April 6, 1580, the then .Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury drew up a form of prayer which was approved by the 

 Privy Council, and ordered by them to be read in all 

 dioceses in the kingdom. In the world there are many 

 instances of religious services being held on the anniversary 

 of an earthquake, it being regarded as an exhibition of 

 God's vengeance upon a wicked people. The belief that 

 earthquakes are signs or warnings owes its origin in 

 part to prophecies in the Bible, where, for example, we 

 read that " there shall be famines and pestilences and 

 earthquakes " as portending future calamities. Earth- 

 quakes have led to the abolition of oppressive taxation, 

 the abolition of masquerades, the closing of theatres, and 

 even to the alteration in fashions. .A New England paper, 

 of 1727, tells us that " a considerable town in this province 

 has been so far awakened by the awful providence in the 

 earthquake that the women have generally laid aside their 

 hooped petticoats." 



VmVERSnY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Tun success of the Children's Museum in Bedford Park. 

 Brooklyn, as a factor in education forms the subject of 

 an article by Miss .A. B. Gallup in the April number of 

 the Popular Science Monthly. -At its commencement in 

 iSqq the museum comprised only two rooms, containing 

 little more than a few insects, shells, and stuffed birds. 

 The eagerness with which these were visited by children 

 soon led, however, to extension, and twelve exhibition 

 rooms, furnished with specimens, models, and pictures 

 illustrative of nearly every subject interesting to child- 

 hood, .arc now open to the public. These collections illus- 

 trate the chief branches of natural history, geography, art, 

 and the history of the United States. Voung people arc 

 encouraged to think and act for themselves, one result 

 being the installation of a wireless telegraph apparatus 

 by a party of boy visitors, some of the members of which 

 subsequently obtained appointments as wireless tele- 

 graphists. The institution seems worthy of imitation in 

 this country. 



Dr. \V. E. Hovle, director of the Manchester Museum, 

 speaking on children's museums at a museum conference 



