INTRODUCTION. 5 



on this subject, gave, in 1856, a catalogue of 1,837 works 

 devoted to seismology.* In 1858 Mr. Eobert Mallet 

 published in the Eeports of the British Association a list 

 of several hundred works relating to earthquakes. Sixty- 

 five of these works are to be found in the British Museum, 

 So far as literature is concerned, earthquakes have re- 

 ceived as much attention in the East as in the West. In 

 China there are many works treating on earthquakes, and 

 the attention which these phenomena received may be 

 judged of from the fact that in a.d. 136 the Grovernment 

 appointed a commission to inquire into the subject. 

 Even the isolated empire of Japan can boast of at least 

 sixty-five works on earthquakes, seven of which are earth- 

 quake calendars, and twenty-three earthquake mono- 

 graphs.2 Besides those treating especially of earthquakes, 

 there are innumerable references to such disturbances in 

 various histories, in the transactions of learned societies, 

 and in periodicals. To attempt to give a complete cata- 

 logue of even the books which have been written would 

 be to enter on a work of compilation which would occupy 

 many years, and could never be satisfactorily finished. 



In the ' Philosophical Transactions of the Eoyal Society,* 

 which were issued in the eighteenth century, there are about 

 one hundred and eighty separate communications on earth- 

 quakes ; and in the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' for 1755 there 

 are no less than fifty notes and articles on the same sub- 

 ject. The great interest shown in earthquakes about the 

 years 1750-60 in England, was chiefly due to the terrible 

 calamity which overtook Lisbon in 1755, and to the fact 

 that about this time several shocks were experienced in 

 various parts of the British Islands. In 1750, which may 



* Memoires de VAcademie Imp. de Dijon, vols. xiv. and xv., 2nd 

 Series, 1855-56. 



* Trans. Seis. Soc. of Jajjati, vol. iii. p 65. 



