The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-09-24 00:00:00

THEORY OF EARTHQUAKES.

As several shocks of earthquake have been lately felt in
the southern districts of this kingdom, we offer no apology
for the introduction of the following observations of Dr.
Stuckley. The doctor rejects the various hypotheses which
had been previously advanced, and grounds the following
conclusions on the phenomena which accompanied the great
earthquake of 1749. • In that year, the doctor began to sus-
pect that earthquakes ought to be attributed, not to vapours
or fermentations generally in the bowels of the earth, but
solely to electricity, for the following reasons, which, if we
may venture an opinion on the subject, we think are con-
clusive :-
4'l, That there is no evidence of any remarkable caver-
nous structure of the earth ; but that, on the contrary, there
is rather reason to presume that it is in a great measure
solid, so as to leave little room for internal changes and fer-
mentations within its substance; nor do coal-pits, he says,
when on fire, ever produce anything resembling an earth-
quake.
" 2. In the earthquake at London, in March 1749, there
was no such thing as fire, vapour, smoke, smell, or an erup-
tion of any kind observed, though the shock affected a cir-
cuit of 30 miles in diameter. This consideration alone of
the extent of surface shaken by an earthquake, he thought
sufficient to overthrow the supposition of its being owing to
the expansion of any subterraneous vapours. For as small
fire-balls bursting in the air propagate a sulpherous smell to
the distance of several miles, it cannot be supposed, that so
immense a force acting instantaneously on that compass of
ground should never break the surface of it, nor become dis-
coverable either to the sight or the smell: besides, that the
operation of such a fermentation would be many days in con-
tinuance, and the evaporation of so much infflammable matter
would require a long space of time.
"3. If vapours and subterraneous fermentations, ex-
plosions and eruptions, were the cause of earthquakes, they
would absolutely ruin the whole system of springs and foun-
tains, wherever they had once been ; which is contrary to
fact, even when they have been frequently repeated. Even
in the eartkquake in Asia Minor, A.D. 17, which destroyed
13 great cities, and shook a mass of earth 300 miles in
diameter, nothing suffered hut the cities ; neither the springs
nor the face of the country being injured.
" 4. That any subterraneous power sufficient to move 30
miles in diameter, as in the earthquake which happened at
London, must be lodged at least 15 or 20 miles below the
surface ; and therefore must it an inverted cone of solid
earth, the base of which i•. ..s in diameter, and the axis
15 to 20, an effect imps r , natural power whatever,
except electricity. Sc. zona Minor, such a cone must have
been 300 miles in the diameter of the base, and 200 in the
axis ; which not al! th g...npowder that has been made since
the invention of it, much less any vapours generated so far
below the surface, could possibly effect.
" 5. A subterraneous explosion will not account for the
manner in which ships, far from land, are affected during an
earthquake ; which seem as if they struck upon a rock, or as
if something thumped against their bottoms. Even the
fishes are affected.
" From comparing these circumstances, the Doctor says,
he had always thought that an earthquake was a shock of the
same kind as those which commonly occur in electrical ex-
periments. And this hypothesis was confirmed by the phe-
nomena attending earthquakes ; particularly those of 1719
and 1750, which gave rise to his publication. The weather,
for five or six months before, had been uncommonly warm ;
the wind south and south-west, without rain ; so that the
earth mnsfhave been in a state peculiarly ready for an elec-
trical shock.

" Beforethe earthquake at London, all vegetab'es had
been uncommonly forward. And electricity is well known
to quicken vegetation. The aurora borealis had been fre-
quent about that time; and just before the earthquake, had
been twice repeated in such colours as had never been seen
bell:n.l. It had also removed southerly, contrary to what is
common in Etgland; so that the Italians and those among
whom earthquakes were frequent, actually foretold the earth-
quake. The year had been remarkable for fire-balls, and
corriscations, and these are rightly judged to be meteors of
an electrical nature.

" in teese circumstances of the earth and air, nothing, he
says, is wanting to produce an earthquake but the touch of
some non-electric body; which must necessarily be had ab
extra from the region of the air, or atmosphere, Hence he
infers, that if a non-electric cloud discharge its contents
upon any part of the earth, in that highly electrical state, an
earthquake must necessarily ensue.
" The Doctor had been informed by those who were up
and abroad the night preceding the earthquake, and early in
the morning, that corruscations in the air were extremely
frequent ; and that a little before the earthquake, a large and
black cloud suddenly covered the atmosphere, which proba-
bly occasioned the shock by the discharge of a shower. A
sound was observed to roll from the Thames towards Temple
Bar before the houses ceased to nod. just as the electrical
snap precedes the shock. This noise (which generally pre-
cede, earthquakes) the Doctor thought could be accounted
for only on electrical principles ; for in a subterraneous erup-
tion, the direct contrary would happen.
" The flames and sulphureous smells, which are some-
times observed in earthquakes, might, he thought, be more
easily accounted for, on the supposition of their being elec-
trical phenomena, than from their being eruptions from the
bowels of the earth. So also the suddenness and expedition
of the concussion, it being felt at the same instant over such
a large surface. The circumstance of earthquakes chiefly
affecting the sea-coasts, places along rivers (and, adds Doc-
tor Priestley, eminences), is a farther argument of their
being electrical phenomena.
" The List argument he uses is taken from the effects
which it had on persons of weak constitutions, who were,
for a day or two after it happened, troubled with pains in the
back; rheumatisms, hysterics, and nervous disorders; just in
the same manner as they would have been after an actual
electrification; .to some these disorders proved fatal."—
Merlin.

The borough of Birmingham is restored to a state of per-
fect tranquility, and the whole of the London police have
returned to town,