September 19, 1907J 



NATURE 



535 



fairlv represented that of the meeting, and it was sup- 

 ported by Prof. Schafer, F.R.S., Prof. Gotch, F.R.S., and 

 others. 



The individual papers were perhaps fewer than is usually 

 the case. Prof. Sherrington, F.R.S., added another to 

 the series of communications on the coordination of reflex 

 muscular movements in the spinal animal which has 

 added so much to the interest of the British Association 

 meetings in the last few years. Very beautiful examples 

 were shown of graded reflex movements which took place 

 in response to graded stimuli. His experiments throw a 

 good deal of light upon the action of strychnine. This 

 drug appears to caLise an exaggeration of the rebound 

 which takes place normally after reflex inhibition. The in- 

 hibition may be re-established by giving chloroform. Two 

 practical points were brought out : — (i) that in many cases 

 the physiological units of musculature do not correspond 

 to the anatomical ones ; and (2) that there is a portion 

 of the gluteus maximus muscle which does not respond 

 either to ordinary reflex stimulation or to strychnine. 



Papers on the physiology of nerve were read by Dr. 

 Alcock and Prof. Alacdonald. Interesting in themselves, 

 these communications were rendered doubly so by the fact 

 that their writers take a diametrically opposite view of 

 the nature of the nervous impulse. 



Three reports were presented by committees ; they dealt, 

 respectively, with the metabolic balance sheet of the in- 

 dividual tissues, the ductless glands, and the effect of 

 climate upon health. Their work evoked more interest 

 than usual. The afternoon was spent in discussing the 

 report of the committee of which Sir Lauder Brunton is 

 chairman, and which is a very strong one. It has 

 worked very hard in its efforts to produce a schedule for 

 the collection of the necessary data for the comparison 

 of the climatic conditions of various localities with the 

 diseases which are prevalent in them. Along another 

 line the committee has been greatly strengthened by the 

 active interest of Prof. Zuntz, who came over to Leicester 

 and gave an account of the work which is now being 

 inaugurated in Berlin. 



Prof. Zuntz is continuing the work which he and his 

 collaborators carried on in the high Alps, and at the 

 present time two travellers, Drs.. Schilling and Jaffe, are 

 making a corresponding set of observations upon them- 

 selves in Togo. It will be of great interest to compare 

 the effects of hot climate with the positive results which 

 were obtained upon the high .Alps. J. Barcroft. 



TR-E KINGSTON EARTHQUAKE. 



'X'HE offi-cial report on the Kingston earthquake, of 

 January 14 last, by Mr. Maxwell Hall, contains, in 

 addition to the customary compilation of accounts of time, 

 duration and violence of the shock, some interesting 

 records of the peculiar behaviour of the sea on the north 

 coast of the island. At .Annotto Bay and Port Maria the 

 sea receded, about three or four minutes before the shock 

 at Port Maria, at about the same time after it according 

 to the account from .Annotto Bay, the amount of the 

 recession being equivalent to a vertical fall of from 12 feet 

 to 20 feet ; after the shock the sea returned in a wave 

 which swept up the shore to 6 feet or 8 feet above its 

 norma! level. This phenomenon was only recorded at the 

 two localities mentioned, a fact which points to its being 

 probably due to movement of the land rather than to a 

 sea wave. At the Kempshot Observatory, St. James, the 

 masonry pier of the transit instrument, resting on solid 

 rock, was found to have been disturbed, so that the west 

 end of the axis was 32" higher than the east end. In 

 Kingston Harbour subsidence of the land was noticed 

 along the shore-line, of more than 24 feet in places, but 

 this appears to have been due to the shaking down of 

 loose accumulations of recent deposits, as there is no 

 indication of a permanent change of level in the centre 

 of the harbour or on land except near the shore-line. 



Beside the official report, we have received from Prof. 

 Carmody, of Trinidad, a series of photographs taken in 

 Kingston on the second and third dav after the earthquake. 

 Two of these are reproduced, which show the character of 



NO. 1977, VOL. 76] 



the damage done ; this was greatest in the case of walls 

 facing east, those facing north or south being generally 

 uninjured. A noteworthy peculiarity was the fact that 

 arched openings seem to have withstood the shock while 



the rest of the wall was destroyed ; as there is no form 

 of construction less suited than the arch to withstand the 

 strains set up by an earthquake shock, this can only be 



ascribed to the badness of material used for building, the 

 arches having stood owing to the necessity for using better 

 material and more skilled workmanship! in their con- 

 struction. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 By the will of the late Mr. A. H. Blount, lord of the 

 manor of Orleton, Hereford, who died in London on 

 June 17, Yale University will receive a bequest the value 

 of which, after payment of duties. Sic, will amount to 

 about 80,000/. 



The new session of Birkbeck College, London, will be 

 opened on Monday, September 30, when an address will 

 be given by Mr. G. G. Chisholm. The laboratories will 

 afterwards be open to inspection, and demonstrations will 

 be given. There will be an annual exhibition of students' 

 works on Friday, Saturday, and Monday, September 27, 

 28, and 30. 



The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- 

 tion for Ireland will, next month, award not more than 

 three commercial scholarships to young men having a 



