THE RECENT ADVANCE IN SEISMOLOGY 289 
journal, Gerland’s Beitrige zur Geophysik, in which appears the great 
annual catalogue of earthquakes. 
The solid basis for the modern theory of causation of earthquakes 
must be credited in largest measure to the Austrian and Japanese 
schools of seismologists, though many outside these schools have 
made valuable contributions. Nowhere else in the world has earth- 
quake investigation been carried to the same degree of well-planned 
refinement as in Japan, and nowhere is there a greater practical need 
for it. An admirable summary of Japanese achievements along 
this line is to be found in the recent work issued by the chairman of 
the famous Earthquake Investigation Committee." 
The distribution of seismicity—The scientific investigations to 
determine the distribution of seismicity over the /and surjace of the 
globe may be said to have begun with the compilation of earthquake 
catalogues. The great catalogue of Perrey,? which fills six volumes, 
was a work which engaged an entire lifetime, and, full of errors as 
it is, has been the starting-point of all later work. More recently 
special catalogues have been prepared for particular seismic provinces; 
such, for example, as those of Milne for Japan, Hoernes for Steier- 
mark, and Baratta for Italy.s It has remained for Count de Mon- 
tessus de Ballore to devote the better part of his lifetime to collecting 
the scattered material now finally made available and by a process 
of correlation and standardization to lay the foundations for a new 
branch of the science—seismic geography. 
The vast proportions of the work undertaken by the French savant 
above mentioned® will be appreciated when it is stated that the prob- 
t D. Kikuchi, Recent Seismological Investigation in Japan, Pub. E. I. C. (foreign 
languages), No. 19 (1904), p. 120. 
2 Alexis Perrey, Les tremblements de terre (six volumes and a bibliography, Dijon, 
1843-71). 
3 J. Milne, ““A Catalogue of the Earthquakes Recorded in Japan between 1885 
and 1892,” Trans. Seism. Soc. Japan, Vol. IV (1895), pp. xxi+ 367, 2 pls. 
4 R. Hoernes, ‘‘Erdbeben und Stosslinien Steiermarks,’’? Mitth. d. Erdbeben-Kom. 
d. k. Akad. d. Wiss. 2. Wien, N.-F., No. 7 (1902), pp. I-I15. 
5M. Baratta, I terremoti d’Italia (Turin, 1901), pp. 960. 
6 F. de Montessus de Ballore, ‘“‘ Relation entre la rélief et la séismicité,’? C. R. 
de l’ Acad. des Sc. de Paris, Vol. CXX (1895), pp. 1183-87. 
“Introduction & un essai de description séismique du globe et mesure de 
la séismicité,” Beitraige zur Geophysik, Vol. IV (1900), pp. 331-82. 
“Loi générale de la repartition des régions séismiques instables 4 la sur- 
