August j, 1913 



NATURE 



the introduction of a strain of wheat, oi eas) 

 cultivation, which will combine hig"h yield with 

 quality and give a satisfactory straw. Usually 

 in India, as elsewhere, the consistency of a wheat 

 varies greatly, according to the conditions under 

 which it is grown. Although weak wheats can 

 be improved to some extent in milling and baking 

 qualities by cultivation, they have not been made 

 to behave like strong wheats. Owing to the 

 shortness of the growth-period and the liability 

 of the water-supply to deficiency, moderate-yield- 

 ing wheats are on the average the most profitable 

 to the grower. The Pusa experiments, which 

 have been in progress since 1907, show thai 

 the strong wheats with good milling properties 

 retain these properties both under canal irrigation 

 and on the black soils, and that high yield and 

 high quality can be combined in the same wheat. 

 Such adverse factors as waterlogging and late 

 cultivation affect both the yield and quality ol 

 the wheat, and the ryot requires training to the 

 fact that rice conditions of drainage will not do 

 for wheat cultivation. As elsewhere, the greatest 

 financial return for the labour is obtained by grow- 

 ing to perfection a wheat which combines yield 

 with quality. 



We believe that the type of wheat preferred 

 by the natives for their home consumption is 

 altogether different from the strong wheat so 

 desired for the export market : the authors ignore 

 this point, but it would appear undesirable to 

 sacrifice the home to the export market for the 

 sake of such an elusive qualitv as strength. 



F.. F. A. 



PROF. JOHN MILNE, F.R.S. 



TO few men is it given to follow the growth of 

 a new science from its infancy to maturity, 

 and to still fewer to be prime movers in bringing 

 about such a development. Nevertheless this is 

 the claim we can confidently make for Dr. John 

 Milne. He found seismology in its embryo stage, 

 as left by the pioneer Robert Mallet — with its in- 

 struments of the most unsatisfactory type, its 

 observational methods of the crudest description, 

 and its inferences far from conclusive — but he 

 lived to see well-equipped seismographical 

 ob'sei vatories scattered all over the globe, seismo- 

 fogical societies established in every civilised 

 State, and the science of seismology universal^ 

 recognised as an important and highly suggestive 

 branch of geophysics. And it was undoubtedl] 

 to Milne's genius and energy that the impulse 

 leading to these results has been largely due. 

 Vet he had not reached the age of sixty-three when 

 he died on July 31, and his earthquake studies 

 were comprised within a period of thirty-five 

 years ! 



The two halves of this period of incessant 

 activity had each its particular outlook — the first 

 mainly confined to earthquake-shaken Japan; the 

 second extending to the whole globe. At the early 

 age of twenty-five, Milne, a student from the 

 NO. 2284, VOL. 91] 



Royal School of .Mines, with a short experience in 

 Newfoundland, Labrador, and Arabia, was 

 appointed Professor of Geology and Mining in 

 the University ol Tokyo. Active as the young 

 professor was in his teaching work, writing text- 

 books on crystallography and mining, and con- 

 ducting expeditions to study the volcanic and other 

 phenomena of Japan and neighbouring lands, it 

 was, nevertheless, outside his official duties that 

 he began to find the fullest scope for his super- 

 abundant energies. 



It was the frequent earthshakings of his 

 adopted country that supplied food to Milne's in- 

 quiring and speculative mind. Before he was thirty 

 he had founded the Seismological Society of 

 Japan, and a seismological journal ; but for the 

 first ten years at least Milne might have truth- 

 fully asserted, " f am the Seismological Society, 

 and I write, as well as edit, the journal." He 

 established observing stations all over Japan, 

 eventually reaching nearly 1000 in number, each 

 of which was supplied with a register in the form 

 of a cheque-book, and the "cheques," filled up with 

 answers to questions in Japanese and English, 

 when posted to Milne, supplied him with the 

 means of drawing "isoseismal " lines on his maps 

 for each shock. Rut this laborious task, with 

 earthquakes of almost daily occurrence, was onlv 

 a small part of his work. He invented and im- 

 proved various forms of recording instruments, 

 investigated the laws of transmission of vibra- 

 tions through the earth's crust by "artificial 

 earthquakes," studied the principles on which build- 

 ings that should be " earthquake-proof " may be 

 constructed, registered the meteorological con- 

 ditions under which earthquakes occur, and per- 

 severingly followed innumerable clues in diverse 

 directions that continually suggested themselves 

 to his ever-open mind. 



Not the least important part of his work was 

 the training a band of native observers, who are 

 ably continuing and extending Milne's investiga- 

 tions in Japan. More than one hundred memoirs, 

 filling more than two-thirds of the nineteen 

 volumes of the Transactions and Journal of the 

 Seismological Society of Japan, constitute the 

 best evidence of Milne's devotion to the science 

 during his seventeen years of residence in the 

 country. 



Hut Milne's retirement from the Japanese pro- 

 fessorship at the age of forty-five furnished the 

 opportunity for entering on a wider sphere of 

 labour — one to which he was able to devote the 

 whole of his time and effort. Just before starting 

 for England, however, a most disastrous fire 

 destroyed his accumulated books and instruments 

 — the most serious loss being that of the stock of 

 precious volumes of the Transactions and Journal 

 of his society. 



Undismayed by this misfortune, Milne, within 

 three weeks of his arrival at home, had built 

 a brick pillar at Shide, in the Isle of Wight, and 

 set up on it his seismographs. The site of this now 

 famous observing station had been selected from 



