412 



NA TURE 



[August 23, 1906 



" laid out," how it is maintained and cultivated, and 

 what are the moral and religious lessons which arise 

 gradually and spontaneously in a child's mind from 

 the lessons afforded by the observation of plant-life 

 and the habits of animals. We have no doubt of the 

 truth of all this, but only on the condition before 

 mentioned as to the tactful sympathy of the teacher. 



LETTER TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither 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 is taken of anonymous communications.] 



The Earth's Interior. 



It has long been suspected that the earth is an iron 

 planet, and now, through the work of Strutt and others, 

 the evidence both for and against is intensifying. 



It is just worth noting, as a matter of simple arithmetic, 

 that a core of metallic iron of density 7, covered with a 

 crust of rock 500 miles thick of density 2-5, together make 

 up the known average terrestrial density, 5-6 ; but recent 

 evidence, interestingly summarised by Principal Griffiths 

 in his presidential address to Section A of the British 

 .'\ssociation, points to a crust much thinner than the above. 

 It is to be hoped that the " boring " proposals of the Hon. 

 Chas. Parsons will before long attract the attention they 

 deserve. Oliver Lodge. 



THE E.iRTHOUAKE IN SOUTH .iMERICA. 



BETWEEN seven and eight o'clock on Thursday 

 evening last, Valparaiso, Santiago, and many 

 other parts of Chile were visited by a very severe 

 earthquake, causing, it is feared, heavy loss of life and 

 widespread damage. As was the case in San Fran- 

 cisco, the earthquake was followed by many outbursts 

 of fire and the failure of the gas and electric light. 

 .According to a telegram to the New York Herald 

 from Valparaiso, that city experienced, without any 

 warning, the dav having been unusually calm and 

 pleasant, two distinct shocks of earthquake, and, 

 standing as it does upon a formation of granite and 

 gneiss, it suffered severely. The same correspondent 

 reported the occurrence of many landslides round the 

 citv. According to Renter, the shock at Santiago de 

 Chile was the most severe within living memory ; it 

 lasted three and a half minutes, and was followed by 

 heavy showers. The seismograph at the observatory 

 was thrown out of order by the violence of the shocks, 

 which, though slight, continued for some days. 



The disturbance extended over a zone of nearly 

 two degrees, and it is impossible at present to esti- 

 mate the number of Hves lost and the damage done, 

 the accounts received being of a very conflicting 

 nature. 



The Chilian Legation in London received the 

 following telegram from Santiago on Monday last, 

 and the wording is in marked contrast to that found 

 in the communications sent by Press correspon- 

 dents : — 



" On the evening of the i6th a severe earthquake 

 was felt between Valparaiso and Talca. The loss of 

 life is not very great. The damage to property is 

 considerable at Valparaiso but less at Santiago. 

 Public order has been entirely maintained. TTie 

 authorities and private persons are succouring the dis- 

 tressed people, and the foreign Legations are lending 

 their aid. The north has been wholly unaffected by 

 the earthquake." 



The earthquake was duly recorded by seismographs 

 in different parts of the world. 



The instrument at Kcw Observatory plainly showed 



NO. I 92 I, VOL. 74] 



the magnitude of the disaster. The record indicated 

 that the first tremor took place at thirtv-three minutes 

 after midnight, Greenwich time, on Friday morning. 

 The first ma.ximum was reached at 1.2 a.m., which 

 was followed by continuous convulsions until a second 

 maximum was reached at 1.50 a.m. 



Prof. Milne is reported to have obtained good 

 records by means of his instruments at Shide, Isle of 

 Wight. The first records were observed at twenty- 

 four minutes past twelve in the morning, and from 

 these it was known that a disaster had occurred 

 somewhere along the western side of South .America. 

 .According to Valparaiso time, it would then have 

 been 7.15. The duration was more than five hours. 



-According to Reuter's correspondent at Washington, 

 a very heavy and distinct earthquake shock was 

 recorded on Thursday evening by the seismographs of 

 the Weather Bureau, beginning at five minutes 

 twenty-two seconds after seven o'clock, time of the 

 seventy-fifth meridian. Complete and perfect records 

 were obtained of both north to south and east to west 

 movements of the earth's crust. The tremors were 

 comparatively slow, and their motion was deliberate, 

 each complete movement covering from eighteen to 

 forty seconds. 



The disturbances lasted without intermission for 

 several hours, and finally ceased about midnight. The 

 most violent shock seems to have occurred at forty- 

 two minutes twenty-six seconds after eight o'clock. 



The instruments at the Hamburg Seismographic 

 Institute are said to have shown greater and more 

 prolonged signs of disturbance than at the time of 

 the San Francisco disaster. 



A telegram from Victoria, B.C., stated that the local 

 seismograph recorded that the earthquake lasted four 

 hours. 



The tide gauges at Honolulu showed a disturbance, 

 apparently of distinct origin, beginning at 5.23 a.m. 

 on August 17. Three waves were indicated hourly, 

 showing an oscillation of between three and four 

 inches from the normal tides. Wireless reports from 

 Maui and Hilo state that a wave 5 feet high occurred 

 there. It manifested itself by an unprecedentedly 

 heavv surf. In the enclosed Bay of Maalaea, on the 

 island of Maui, the wave reached a height of 12 feet. 



News has been received in New A'ork that the 

 earthquake has destroyed the island of Juan Fernandez 

 (made famous by its supposed connection with Defoe's 

 " Robinson Crusoe "), which was used as a Chilian 

 penal settlement. 



.A despatch from Fort de France, Martinique, re- 

 ports that earthquake shocks of varying severity 

 were, experienced on the island at 1.15 p.m. on 

 .August ig and at 3.47 a.m., 4 a.m., and 8.37 a.m. on 

 August 20, but that no damage was done ; and_ a 

 Reuter telegram from Lima states that Valparaiso 

 was visited bv another heavy earthquake on the night 

 of Monday last : also that slight shocks were felt at 

 Lima and Huacho on that day. 



PROF. BROU.iRDEL. 

 \X7E regret to record the death of Prof. Paul 



* * Brouardel, of Paris, who died on July 23 at 

 the age of sixty-nine years. Prof. Brouardel had held 

 a large number of most important positions in the 

 LIniversitv of Paris and in the official life of France, 

 and he had many friends in England in connection 

 with the important work in legal medicine and in 

 hygiene which he had done. 



"He was born in St. Quentin in 1837, and received 

 his early education at the Lyc^e St. Louis, in Paris. 

 In iSjQhe was an interne at the hospitals; he took 



