PREDICTION OF EARTHQUAIOIS. 301 



Before the earthquakes which, in 1783, shook Calabria 

 and Sicily, fish are said to have appeared in great numbers 

 on the coast of Sicily, and the whirlpool of Charybdis 

 assumed an unusual excited state. 



It is said that Pherecydes predicted the earthquakes 

 of Lacedemon and Helmont, by the taste of the water in 

 the very deep well at the castle of Lovain.^ 



The writer of an article on the Lisbon earthquake 

 says that ' after the 24th I felt apprehensive, as I 

 observed the same prognostics as on the afternoon of 

 October 31, that is, the weather was severe, the wind 

 northerly, a fog came from the sea, the water in a foun- 

 tain ran of a yellow clay colour, and ' he adds, ' from 

 midnight to the morning of the 2oth I felt five shocks.' ^ 



At the present time Eudolf Falb, following a theory 

 based upon the attractive influences of the sun and moon, 

 tells us the time at which we are to expect earthquakes. 



That occasionally there are signs attendant on earth- 

 quakes, although we cannot give them a physical ex- 

 planation, we cannot doubt. Also we know that in 

 certain areas earthquakes are more likely to occur at 

 one season than at another. Should earthquakes be 

 foretold with the assistance of knowledge of this de- 

 scription, the predictions at once become the result of 

 the application of certain natural laws, and are not to 

 be regarded as predictions in the popularly accepted sense 

 of that term, any more than the arrival of a friend is pre- 

 dicted by the previous receipt of a telegram announcing 

 his coming. 



Eather than accredit the ancients and those of more 



modern times who, in consequence of their feelings, have 



recorded the coming of an earthquake, with a knowledge 



of premonitory signs, we might in many instances regard 



1 Phil. Trans., vol. xviii. IfiSS- 5. 2 j^^^ y^i^ xlix. 



