402 



NATURE 



[June ig, 1913 



was built in 1906 at Seddin, about 12 kilometres 

 south-west of Potsdam. Magnetographs are now 

 in operation there as well as at Potsdam under 

 the Potsdam staff. A description of the Seddin 

 building's and instruments is thus included. 



The volume contains much of interest to all 

 meteorologists and magneticians, and is admir- 

 ably suited for the purpose for which it was 

 primarily intended. A previous study of it will 

 double the advantages of a visit, while subsequent 

 consultation will recall memories of a most pleasant 

 and profitable experience. C. Chree. 



RECENT SEA-LEVEL VARIATIONS IN 

 JAPAN AND ITALY. 1 

 TN a valuable memoir, Prof. Omori deals with 

 -L the variations in the height of the sea-level at 

 nine mareograph stations in Japan from 1898 (in 

 a few cases from 1894) to 1910, referred to in a 

 note in Nature of December 26, 1912 (vol. xc, 

 p. 471). They are greitly in excess of any 

 changes that might be due to variations of baro- 

 metric pressure or air-temperature, and the effects 

 of wind are probably negligible. These variations 

 being allowed for, there remain considerable 

 changes in the mean annual height of the sea-level 

 at all nine stations, 

 the greatest being a 

 decrease in height of 

 22"7 mm. per year at 

 Ayukama. In the 

 accompa nyi ng 

 sketch -map, the 

 shaded areas repre- 

 sent the parts of 

 Japan which are now 

 subsiding, the boun- 

 daries inland being 

 'determined by inter- 

 polation. The figures 

 at the different 

 stations denote the 

 mean annual rise or 

 fall of the sea-level 

 In millimetres per 

 year. It is on the 

 east side, to which 

 the present depres- 

 sions are chiefly con- 

 fined, that the great- 

 est depths of ocean 

 lie and the most 

 violent earthquakes 

 originate. 

 Prof. Omori also compares the variations in the 

 average height of the sea-level in the whole of 

 Japan (the barometric and temperature correc- 

 tions being made) with the variations in the lati- 

 tude of Tokyo and Mizusawa for each year from 

 1895 to 1910. The curves representing both 

 variations show a remarkable correspondence. 



1 F. Omori: (i) "On the Recent Sea-level Variation at the Different 

 Japanese Mareoaiaph Stations ' (Bull. Imp. Earthq. Inv. Com., vol. v.. 

 I9t3, pp. 39-86). (a) " Note on the Recent Sea-level Variation at the Italian 

 and Austrian Mareograph Stations, and on the Cause of the Messina-Reggio 

 Earthquake of 1008" (ibid., pp. 



The average height of the sea-level was greatest 

 in 1899 and 1905-06, and least in 1897 and 1902 ; 

 the latitude was a maximum about 1899-1900 and 

 in 1906, and a minimum in 1897 and 1902. Corre- 

 sponding to a variation of o"i" in the latitude, 

 there was a change of 40 mm. in the height of the 

 sea-level. 



The examination of the records at seventeen 

 mareograph stations in Italy and Austria from 

 1900-08 shows that in all parts of Italy the height 

 of the sea-level was decreasing by amounts rang- 

 ing from io'5 mm. per year in the neighbourhood 

 of Pola and Ancona, to between 4 and 5 mm. per 

 year at Naples and Messina and less than 2 mm. 

 per year at Palermo. In 1908 the mean sea-level 

 reached a well-defined minimum, and Prof. Omori 

 suggests that this may have been a secondary 

 cause of the Messina earthquake at the close of 

 that vear. 



C. D. 



NOTES. 



A statue of Lord Kelvin, which has been subscribed 

 for mainly by the public of Belfast, is to be unveiled 

 to-day (Thursday) in the Botanic Gardens, Belfast. 

 The Chancellor of the Queen's University, Belfast (the 

 Earl of Shaftesbury, K.P.), will preside, and Sir 

 Joseph Larmor, M.P., F.R.S., will perform the un- 

 veiling ceremony, and deliver an address. The statue 

 is the work of Mr. Bruce Joy. Invitations to the 

 ceremony have been issued to the Lord Mayor and 

 Corporation of Belfast, to the Senate and professors 

 of the Queen's University, Belfast, and to a number 

 of leading men of science. — The statue of Lord Kelvin 

 erected bv the contributions of his fellow-citizens in 

 Glasgow and the west of Scotland has been placed in 

 position by the side of the new Kelvin Avenue, which 

 traverses the Kelvingrove Park beneath Gilmorehill, 

 close to the University of Glasgow. The statue will 

 be unveiled on October 8 next, by the Right Hon. A. 

 Birrell, Lord Rector of the University, and an address 

 on Kelvin will be subsequently delivered by the Right 

 Hon. A. J. Balfour, Gifford lecturer in the University. 

 — The Kelvin memorial window in Westminster Abbey 

 will be unveiled on July 15. 



It is with deep regret that we have to announce 

 the death, from spleno-medullary leucaemia, of Prof. 

 N. H. Alcock, Joseph Morley Drake professor of 

 physiology in McGill University, Montreal. Prof. 

 Alcock was born in 1871, and received his medical 

 education at Trinity College, Dublin, and Sir Patrick 

 Dun's Hospital. He graduated as B.A. and M.D. in 

 Dublin University in 1896, taking senior moderator- 

 ship and gold medal in natural science. He was 

 shortly afterwards appointed demonstrator of anatomy 

 at Victoria University, Manchester. In the following 

 year he was appointed assistant professor of physio- 

 logy in Dublin University. In 1903 he became demon- 

 strator of physiology at London LIniversity, and in 

 the following year he succeeded Dr. Waller as lecturer 

 in physiology in St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, 

 Paddington. In 1909 he obtained the degree of D.Sc. 

 of London University in consideration of his researches 



NO. 2277, VOL. 91] 



