Reviens — Seismological Societij of Japan. 367 



IT. — Notes on Vol. II. of the " Transactions of the Seismo- 

 logical Society of Japan." 



THE July to December, 1880, volume of the Transactions of the 

 Seismological Society of Japan contains five papers of con- 

 siderable value, to wit : — Notes on the Eecent Earthquakes of Yedo 

 Plain and their effect on certain buildings, by J. Milne; On Pendu- 

 lum Experiments on the summit of Fujiyama for the purpose of 

 ascertaining the force of gravity at that point, by Prof. T. C. Menden- 

 hall ; The effect of Kailroad trains in transmitting vibrations through 

 the ground, by Prof H. M. Paul ; On a new Seismograph for Hori- 

 zontal Motion, by J. A. Ewing ; The Peruvian Earthquake of May 

 9th, 1877, by J. Milne. It will be seen that the founder of the 

 Society, as we believe we may call Mr. Milne, is the principal con- 

 tributor. 



His first paper — the first also on the list — occupies thirty-eight of 

 the ninety-eight pages which contain the reading-matter of the 

 volume. His second paper — the last of the five— an interesting 

 contribution on the Peruvian Earthquake of 1877, fills forty-eight 

 pages. 



Mr. Milne's notes on the " Recent Earthquakes of Yedo Plain " 

 commence with a short resume of the work of Mr. W. S. Chaplin 

 and Mr. E. Knipping on the subject of those terrestrial spasms 

 which are a source of such constant and "tremulous" interest to 

 residents in this beautiful island. Mr. Chaplin's reasoning would 

 seem to establish that the moon has no influence in providing earth- 

 quakes. His observations and those of Mr. Knipping have been 

 condensed by the author, who has added a catalogue of the earth- 

 quakes which have occurred between 1872 and 1881 inclusive, the 

 record being for the most part taken fi-om the registers of the Yamato 

 Yashiki Observatory. This tabulation should be very valuable for 

 purposes of reference. It shows that in nine years from 1872 to 

 1880 the troublesome number of 370 earthquakes has been recorded. 

 Of these the greatest number, seventy-four, occurred in the last 

 year. In 1878 there were seventy-one earthquakes : in 1874 only 

 eight. Of the grand total, the large majority of 213 made them- 

 selves felt in winter, the balance of 157 having been perceived in 

 the summer months. It is only justice to 1881 to say that its seismic 

 department showed signs of considerable energy in the five months 

 of its existence with which the table deals. In that brief period 

 there were thirty-five seisms. Mr. Milne deals at some length with 

 the direction and origin of recent earthquakes, and concludes that, 

 " taking all things into consideration — although some of the earth- 

 quakes which from time to time alarm us may have their origin near 

 the volcauos of the interior, — until by instrumental observation 

 something definite has been determined, I should be inclined to 

 think that a large proportion of the shocks we feel have their origin 

 in faulted districts of the south." 



The most interesting part of Mr. Milne's paper is that which deals 

 with the effects produced by earthquake shocks upon buildings. An 



