8 
Earthquakes and Electricity. 
[January, 
We propose to conclude our paper with a few remarks on 
the subject of the prevention of earthquakes. The time 
seems to have arrived when it behoves philosophers an 
physicists to devote their energies in a far greater degree 
than has hitherto been the case to the endeavour to preverr 
the occurrence of dangerous physical phenomena. . ine 
scientific tendency of the time has hitherto been principally 
to record and to measure the effects of these catastrop ies. 
But it appears quite within the bounds of possibility tor 
learned men, carried away by an abstract love o t lien 
knowledge, to push their efforts in this direction a little too 
far. Ingenious instruments have been devised not only tor 
the purpose of foretelling the approach of earthquakes, but 
also with the object of accurately measuring their intensity, 
rate of transit, and other (by no means unimportant) features 
of their operation. But cui bono these elaborate contrivances 
so far as tending to mitigate the terrible power of the con- 
vulsions ? Without wishing to undervalue in the smallest 
degree the great labours and researches of Prof. Palmieri, 
the Italian physicist who superintends the well-fitted observ- 
atory at Mount Vesuvius, designed to give warning of coming 
earthquakes in the region of the Bay of Naples, can it ie 
said that a single human life, or even a single building, has 
been saved from loss by earthquake since its establishment . 
Within a space of little more than two years Ischia has 
experienced two severe earthquakes. By the first— that oi 
March 5th, 1881— it appears that 114 lives were lost, 
289 houses were destroyed, 260 families _ were rendered 
homeless, and property was ruined amounting in value to 
about /'40,ooo. By the second — that of July 28th, 1883 
iqqo lives have been lost, 374 persons have been injured 
and four towns and villages have been practically reduce 
to heaps of stone. Now it is distinctly recoided in a trust- 
worthy source of information (“ Nature,” August 9, 1883) 
that Prof. Palmieri’s delicate seismometers at Vesuvius re- 
corded no tremors whatever previous to the fatal shock of 
last Tulv. But did they even record any warning signs pre- 
vious to that of March, 1881 ? Or, if they did, was the 
record of the slightest benefit ? . , . . 
Take another aspeft of the question. By simply referring 
to the various illustrated periodicals of March, 1881, we see, 
with considerable accuracy, the nature of the buildings 
which by their toppling over were the immediate cause of 
the great loss of life that ensued. They are evidently sub- 
stantial masonry edifices, ranging to as many as three and 
four storeys in height. Now the construction of such houses 
