396 Dr. C. Davison—Founders of Seismology. 
interesting paper before the Royal Geographical Society on sub- 
oceanic changes as revealed by the fracture of telegraph-cables.+ 
There were, indeed, few branches of seismology to which at one time 
or another Milne did not attend. On only one important subject 
did he touch less than might have been expected, namely, the origin 
of earthquakes, but the references which he made to it here and there 
show that he held the modern view which attributes earthquakes to 
the formation and growth of faults. 
To state, as I have done for Michell and Mallet, what seem to me 
to be the contributions of permanent value which Milne made 
to seismology would be merely to abbreviate and repeat the preceding 
pages. I will therefore confine these concluding remarks to two 
general features. 
In a history of seismology, Milne’s work must for all time occupy 
a large and worthy place. In our textbooks of the future, in books 
which aim at presenting a summary of the then existing knowledge, 
the references may be fewer as time goes on than his work deserves. 
It must he remembered that Milne was a student of earthquake- 
phenomena, and that our knowledge of the phenomena is always 
growing. A careful investigation of a great earthquake, on the other 
hand, retains its value, for it cannot be replaced. Moreover, he 
preferred sometimes to start an inquiry and to leave others to finish 
it, to open up large views and to provide promising subjects of 
inquiry for a future of wider knowledge. Of his two great 
catalogues—of Japanese earthquakes and destructive earthquakes— 
his own analysis was slight. He was, in fact, content to provide 
the materials which others were to use in building. 
The influence of a leader in science extends far beyond his cwn 
contributions. In founding the Seismological Society of Japan, 
which led to the formation of the Imperial Earthquake Investigation 
Committee, and in organizing the network of stations throughout 
the world, and, above all, in his personal influence on those with 
whom he came in touch, it seems to me possible that seismology 
may owe almost as much to his guidance and inspiration as it does. 
to the incessant labour of his well-spent life. 
1 Geogr. Journ., vol. 10, 1897, pp. 129-46, 259-85. 
