146 



SGIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. I(l8, 



Me. John Milne has recently advocated an 

 earthquake survey of the world. He states that 

 for $5,000 twenty observatories willing to co- 

 operate can be provided with the necessary in- 

 struments, and calls attention to the important 

 theoretical and practical problems that can thus 

 be solved. One of the recent earthquakes in 

 Japan was recorded about 16 minutes after its 

 occurrence in Mr. Milne's observatory on the 

 Isle of Wight, and showed that there had been 

 an error in telegraphic transmission to the news- 

 papers of two days, whilst another gave an ac- 

 curate account of a catastrophe the details of 

 which were not known until mails arrived some 

 three weeks later. An absence of records from 

 the Isle of Wight seismographs has on more than 

 one occasion shown that telegrams have exag- 

 gerated seismic effects, and in one instance at 

 least — referring to a recently reported disaster 

 in Kobe — indicated that the sender, regardless 

 of the alarm he might create, was without 

 foundation for his widely-published "message. 

 The immediate benefits derived by observatories 

 at which instruments were installed, over and 

 above the speedy announcement of great catas- 

 trophes in distant places, would be that the 

 records of earth movements would throw light 

 upon some of the otherwise unaccountable de- 

 flections shown in diagrams from magneto- 

 graphs, barographs and other instruments 

 sensible to slight displacements, whilst diurnal 

 and other changes in level affecting astronomical 

 observations would be countinuously recorded. 



Mr. Bennett, who is acting as British Con- 

 sul-General at Galatz, has prepared, says the 

 London Times, a report on the petroleum in- 

 dustry in Rumania, where, he thinks, it is 

 likely to play an important part in future com- 

 mercial development. Petroleum exists in 

 abundance in Rumania, in the zone stretching 

 from Turn-Severin, on the western frontier, 

 along the foot of the Carpathians, towards Bu- 

 kowina and Galicia. It is found throughout 

 the whole of this region, but especially in the 

 Olt, Dimbovitza, Prahova, Buzeu and Tazlau 

 valleys. It is said also to be found in the 

 whole of the plains down to the Danube. 

 There are about fifty borings and eight hundred 

 wells dug by hand in the five districts above 

 mentioned ; but these are all shallow, and 



the output in 1894-95 reached 800,000 tons. 

 Although petroleum has been worked in Ru- 

 mania for 25 years, the industry is evidently in 

 its infancy still. The greater part of the land 

 is owned by the state and large holders who 

 reside in the towns and will not invest money 

 in industrial enterprise ; grain has monopolized 

 the energy and capital of the Rumanians, and 

 the forests and mineral wealth of the country 

 are neglected. Thus it was not until 1895 that 

 a mining law was passed, and up to that date 

 the ownership of land below the surface had 

 never been determined. Nor is there a body 

 of native mining engineers. About a third of 

 the crude oil is taken from the wells of four 

 firms, while the remainder comes from the 

 workings of numerous small proprietors, who 

 heve not the capital necessary for proper de- 

 velopment of the deposits. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



The Johns Hopkins University has published 

 the twenty-first annual report of President 

 Oilman. The report itself, presented to the 

 trustees on November 21st, extends to sixteen 

 pages only, but there are two appendices. One 

 of these contains the reports on the chief 

 branches of study prepared by the principal in- 

 structors in the several departments, together 

 with statements regarding the library, the 

 press, the State Weather Service, The State 

 Geological Survey and the marine laboratory. 

 In conclusion there is given an interesting ret- 

 rospect of the twenty years now completed by 

 the University. The important service per- 

 formed by the Johns Hopkins University for 

 education and science in America is adequately 

 witnessed by the fact that nearly half of its 

 students have become teachers. The following 

 institutions have on their staff more than ten 

 students from the University: Johns Hopkins 

 University (67), Chicago (23), Wisconsin (19), 

 Bryn Mawr (18), Leland Stanford, Jr. (17), 

 Michigan (17), Pennsylvania (16), Cornell (14), 

 Columbia (13), Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology (11), Nebraska (11), Northwestern (11), 

 Harvard (10), Woman's College of Baltimore 

 (10). 



The facultv of the Massachusetts Institute of 



