November 2, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



681 



of the stone lanterns and tombstones made use 

 of in computing tlie intensity of the Mino-Owari 

 earthquake. The accelerations necessary to 

 overturn veere also calculated by West's for- 

 mula, and it is surprising to see how closely 

 they accord with those obtained from the 

 graphic record of the ' shaking table.' 



Because the contents of these volumes are 

 made up of carefully conducted observations of 

 actual and very strong earthquakes, for the 

 first time recorded by means of satisfactory in- 

 struments, together with elaborate experimental 

 investigations of important related phenomena, 

 and because all these results are fully dis- 

 cussed with remarkable skill and keen scientific 

 insight, it is, perhaps, not too much to say that 

 they constitute the most valuable contributions 

 yet made to the literature of seismology. 



Even those who know the men who are do- 

 ing this work, through familiar association and 

 often close personal relations, cannot avoid a 

 feeling of astonishment at the extraordinary 

 performances of a people whose contact with 

 the world at large has been only that of the 

 present generation, and with whom the so- 

 called civilized nations have been strangely and 

 unreasonably unwilling to treat on a basis of 

 equality until within three or four years. 

 When I reflect that seismology is only one of 

 the many sciences in which in original research 

 the Japanese are well in the front rank, and 

 this, too, without the inspiring example of an 

 ancestral Galileo, Newton, La Place, Hum- 

 boldt or Franklin, I wish to do figuratively 

 what I have done many times actually — I 

 take off my hat to an oriental nation that in 

 peace or in war need ask no odds of Europe or 

 America. 



T. C. Mendenhall. 



Rapports preaente au Congres International de 

 Mecanique appliquSe ; Exposition Universelle de 

 1900. Tome I. Ch. Dunod, Editeur. Paris. 

 1900. 8vo. Pp. 546. 



The various congresses of the Paris Expo- 

 sition of 1900 are now bringing out their pub- 

 lished papers and discussions, and the royal 

 octavo volumes of the Congress of Applied Me- 

 chanics are finely illustrative of the character 

 of the work performed at these conventions and 



of the manner in which it is to be published. 

 Of the innumerable books printed relating to 

 the Exposition, these are the most valuable 

 and, to the serious student of that great cyclo- 

 pedia, most interesting. The ' questions ' dis- 

 cussed in Vol'. I. are nine in number : ' Organi- 

 zation of Works '; ' Organization of Mechanical 

 Laboratories ' ; ' Mechanical Applications of 

 Electricity'; ' Hoisting Apparatus ' ; 'Hydraulic 

 Motors ' ; ' Sectional Boilers ' ; ' High-speed En- 

 gines'; ' Heat Motors'; ' Automobilisme.' 



The first topic is discussed by M. Touissant, 

 who presents a study of the manufacturing 

 establishment generally, and Mr. Dickie, who 

 gives a most interesting account of the organi- 

 zation and administration of the Union Iron 

 Works of San Francisco, the birthplace of the 

 famous battleship Oregon, and the source of 

 innumerable steamships, steam-engines and 

 pumping and winding engines, and of mining 

 and manufacturing machinery in enormous 

 amount. M. Boulvin discusses the organization 

 of mechanical laboratories, and his valuable 

 paper is introductory to that of Dwelshauvers, 

 who describes that of the University of Liege, 

 organized by him after years of struggle and 

 strife with the ultra-conservative administra- 

 tion of the University and the Government. 

 The evolution of the mechanical laboratory in 

 America, as an element of technical instruc- 

 tion, is described by Thurston and includes 

 papers by a number of representatives of engi- 

 neering schools in the United States, giving ac- 

 counts of an equal number of the most exten- 

 sive and interesting laboratories of that class 

 in our country. The development of the labora- 

 tory of applied mechanics and its accessories as 

 a means of instruction, primarily, and as an 

 item in the equipment of the technical school 

 and as an essential element of the curriculum, 

 was first eifected satisfactorily in the United 

 States. The European schools are now com- 

 ing to the same plan in rapidly increasing 

 numbers, often modeling after our own in both 

 equipment and methods of employment. An- 

 other instructive division of this subject is dis- 

 cussed by Commandant Mengen, who tells of 

 the organization and the details of equipment 

 of the laboratory of the ordnance department 

 of the French army, which is very extensive 



