Miscellaneous Intelligence. 471 



during the year ending June 30th, 1898; also the reports of the 

 head curators, W. H. Holmes in Anthropology, F. W. True in 

 Biology, and G. P. Merrill in Geology ; further lists of accessions 

 to the collections and library (pp. 1-152). Part II, following, is 

 given to an extended paper by the late Professor E. D. Cope, on 

 the Crocodilians, Lizards, and Snakes; this covers pages 153 to 

 12*70, with thirty-six plates and numerous text figures. 



The Director, in his brief statement, shows the remarkable 

 growth which the Museum has made and emphasizes the impera- 

 tive need of a larger, more dignified and more convenient build- 

 ing, not simply for exhibition purposes, but also to include 

 laboratories and a lecture hall. He shows further the directions 

 in which it is to be desired that the National Museum should 

 develop in the immediate future, and the great service which it 

 may thus do to the country at large. It is greatly to be hoped 

 that his appeal may be regarded and adequate provision made, not 

 only for the present needs of the Museum but also for its future 

 growth. 



3. Publications of the Earthquake Investigation Committee in 

 Foreign Languages. Tokyo, 1900. No. 3, pp. 1-103. No. 4, 

 pp. 1-141. — These publications of the Japan Earthquake Commit- 

 tee contain a series of papers of much interest to seismologists^ 

 chiefly in English, in part also in French. Among these are 

 accounts, with seismical records, of several destructive earth- 

 quakes (1891-1894). A paper of general interest is by H. 

 Nagaoka, on the elastic constants of rocks and the velocity of 

 seismic loaves. This gives a long series of observations on speci- 

 mens of rocks from Archean chlorite schist, through the Paleo- 

 zoic to quartz-sandstones and andesites of the Tertiary. The 

 modulus of elasticity, and modulus of rigidity were determined in 

 each case, as also the density, and from these data the correspond- 

 ing velocities for elastic waves were then calculated. The author 

 finds a distinct gradation in the elastic constants from the higher 

 values characteristic of the oldest rocks down to those of the 

 youngest ; the velocity of wave-propagation is not, however, pro- 

 portionally larger, since the density also enters into the problem. 

 Thus for an Archean Chlorite schist a velocity of 6 '4 to 7 kilo- 

 meters per second is obtained for longitudinal waves; for a 

 Paleozoic clay slate a velocity of 4*5 to 6 ; while for a Tertiary 

 sandstone the value is only 2 - 2. The experiments made seem to 

 show that the elastic constants increase more rapidly than the 

 density as the rocks become more dense, and consequently elastic 

 waves travel with greater velocity in the interior than on the sur- 

 face of the earth's crust. Eruptive rocks are more isotropic than 

 those of non-igneous origin and have inferior elasticity, but there 

 is with them also the same distinction as to age. The schistose 

 structure of the deeper rocks gives a greater value of the elastic 

 constants in a certain particular direction, coinciding with that of 

 swiftest propagation of elastic disturbances. It seems to be 

 shown that the ratio of elastic constants to density, and hence 



Am. Jour. Sci. — Fourth Series, Vol. X, No. 60.— December, 1900. 

 31 



