218 
RESEARCH  LABORATORY  AT  KILAUEA. 
(During  the  last  few  years  “Conservation”  in  its  manifold  appli- 
cations has  held  a most  important  part  in  the  activities  of  human 
endeavor.  The  conservation  of  the  mineral  deposits  which  once 
exhausted  can  never  be  replenished,  and  of  the  watersheds,  which 
judicious  policy  can  repair,  has  for  some  years  occupied  the  atten- 
tion of  the  world  in  a manner  altogether  without  precedent.  How- 
'ever  important  the  preservation  of  our  mines  and  our  useful  fauna 
and  flora,  all  movements  which  look  to  the  preservation  or  pro- 
longation of  human  life  itself  must  be  deemed  of  infinitely  greater 
merit.  All  investigations  which  bear  in  any  manner  upon  this 
great  question  are  worthy  of  the  heartiest  approval  and  coopera- 
tion. The  proposal  to  establish  an  observatory  at  Kilauea  to  study 
the  causes  of  earthquakes  and  eruptions  and  to'  compile  data  to 
enable  seismic  phenomena  to  be  foretold  bears  directly  upon  the 
preservation  of  humanity  and  should  meet  with  sufficient  local 
support  to  enable  it  to  be  carried  out  upon  a scale  which  will 
•ensure  the  greatest  possible  benefit  to  mankind. 
During  the  last  century  three  hundred  thousand  persons  per- 
ished from  earthquake  and  volcanic  disasters  alone.  So  destruc- 
tive have  been  these  convulsions  of  nature  recently  that  for  the 
past  eight  years  an  average  of  over  one  hundred  human  beings 
nave  daily  been  destroyed.  Such  an  appalling  record  resulting 
from  the  effects  of  war,  pestilence  or  famine,  would  long  ago  have 
resulted  in  a concerted  effort  on  the  part  of  civilization  to  control 
the  devastating  forces  at  work  producing  it.  It  has,  however, 
remained  to  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  to  take 
the  initiative  in  a project  which  will  make  the  volcanoes  of  Ha- 
waii the  scene  of  investigations  of  earth  waves  and  movements, 
with  a view  to  predicting  the  approach  of  volcanic  phenomena. 
For  long  periods  before  earthquakes  or  eruptions  take  place 
there  is  little  doubt  that  many  significant  phenomena  occur,  the 
proper  understanding  of  which  would  enable  timely  warning  of 
approaching  disturbances  to  be  given.  It  is  to  such  phenomena 
and  their  meaning  that  the  greatest  interest  centers,  for  upon  their 
proper  interpretation  the  destiny  of  many  must  depend.  Unfor- 
tunately, liitherto,  vulcanologists  have  been  chiefly  engaged  in 
studying  the  effect  of  volcanic  activities,  which  however  impor- 
tant in  aiding  to  a thorough  understanding  of  the  science,  has  in 
itself  little  practical  bearing  upon  the  subject  now  intended  to  be 
investigated. 
The  offer  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  was  made  through 
Professor  Thomas  A.  Jaggar,  Jr.,  at  a recent  address  to  the  Hono- 
lulu Chamber  of  Commerce.  It  is  a tentative  proposal  dependent 
upon  the  amount  of  local  support  which  is  accorded  to  it.  In 
this  regard  it  is  satisfactory  to  learn  that  half  the  minimum  main- 
tenance fund  required  to  be  subscribed  in  Hawaii  has  already 
