New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-20
THEORIES or EARTHQUAKES.

Our last letter from Lima gives ludicrOus
picture OF the effect Of savanrs prediction Cathoc
clergy man in Leipzig, the Rev. Mr.. Fab, editor of The
SIRIUS scientific Journal foretod that about tho close
OF September Peru and Ecuador would be overwhelmed
by tremendous earthquake. The assertion confidently
made all Lima out Of doors IN terror. at loss al
serious as that OF real earthquake The theory
on which Father Fab founded his prophecy s that the
phenomena of earthquakes are produced by the inhu
Of the and other celestial bodies on the masses
OF water within planet We are inclined 10 tnhk ne
meant instead the attraction OF the moon and sun on
the igneOus masses of the earths interior The ac a
in the last days Of September the earth was nearer to the
and than for many years past and the atrac-
ton OF these two bodies accordingly augmented,
gave great color Of support Mr. Fab's theory The
earthquake, being expected declined to come. and sci
ence is nbblDg its fingers again the laws OF this
strange phenomenon. To the prediction Of comets and
ecpses we shall doubtless day add that of phenOm
ena which nov battle We already forete the
recurrence OF the shooting stars, of August and
November; and, with more attention, We may, in ac-
cordance with Redfeld's theory predict the fearful
hurricane which desOlaes annually our American coast
Theories rs to the Of earthquakes are nnumerabe
Their primary cause. well their intimate nature, is
no more known than their relations to the whole OF at
mosphero-terestrial phenomena. The ancient phlioso
pliers attributed earthquakes to ordinary air which was
blazing in the bowels OF the earth. This air eDgulphed
in tho cavities OF tho earth condensed INTO Clouds is
com pressed accumulaes 10 lOOsed revoYes cireuary,
or in whirwlnd, and finding vent escapes with crash
by terribly shaking the ground Such Ia one OF the nrst
theories sustained by Anaximander Anaxagoras, Arts
tote and even Seneca with others as renowned All we
can say at present H. that earthquakes naturally belong
TO HphenOmena while in their origin, certain
electro chemical actions must play either primary or
secondary part The ground Is shaken by system OF
waves of diverse kinds According TO the mode OF hrst
mpuson these sent from the interior to the OUTSIDE
OF the earths crust and rice rerSd as well as to certain
depth OF the heated mass below The idea OF comparing
the prosress earthquakes to sonoTOus waves was st
proposed by DE- Young, and sustained by Gay-Lussac.
Many philosophers Of antiquity, and among them
Pliny compared earthquakes TO subteuanean thunders
Dr. stukeey read before the Royal Society OF London In
1850 memoirs in which he held that electricity was
tho cause OF earthquakes Bcccaria was Of the
same opinion Hyancnthe COggo. who compiled
a Journal Of the shocks felt at lBurges held
that they came from electricity condensed within the
earth Nicholson believed they were caused by dis
charges between clouds and the earth Able Berho
Ion held strongly this idea that he invented earthquakes
rods and volcano rods TO carry on as nuch as e
Illuminating matter stored within the globe In lo9o
d. Ferdinand H0efer. appearing to be Ignorant OF the
la6ors OF his predecessors compared 10 u
suberranean storms in solid medium, as Piiny had
done before him Unti the earthquake at Alba IN lIn
Father Beccara believed that electricity was the primary
them specially TO dssonti0ns OF pJfltes Nasn.EauuI
disciple OF Beeearia adopted later ms master
ton OF supbrous pyrltes extended IT'S effects Dr. Lis
ter Of the opinion This theory deserves 10 be
taken anew into notice exclusively from the point OF
the dissolution Of the pyrtes but IN connection win te
electro-ehemca actions and reactions taking place In
the OF the globe. No is ignorant that there 10
different strata Of the earths crust rich deposit OF sub
stances produced eectro-chemica action that there
liquids in circulation and metallic masses, capable OF
exciting electric currents As NJ. Bccqueret has ALREADY
shown there exists in most terrestrial formations sub
stances whose alteration by atmospheric agents ana
water prOdnces electric effects like the water we obtain
with zIuc. OF all theories proposed on the subject,
that OF Alexis Percy seems to be the best founded
and we'll observed. At the time when the Academy OF
Sciences PARIS In 1854 made favorable report on the
la, OF NJ Percy this saVant had collected ana d
oussed thousand observations for the hrst nail OF
this century The conclusions from his work are these
first the frequency of earthquakes increases toward
the syzges points OF the earths orbit nearest ne sum-
second their frequency increases alsou the neigh
borhOod OF the moons pergee pon OF its orbit nearest
the earh) aud dinnshes toward the apogee Uhe point
OF It's bit furthest remOyed third That earthquake
shocks frequent when the moon isn the Vicinity
OF the meridian than when II - removed % degrees
Every other which tends 10 diminish the enormous
pressure suffered by tile central mass or the globe may
act equally and at the time with the acton OF Tue
the atmospheric strata tends 70 diminish their pressure
and centrifugal force OF the cyclone OF hurricanes
central mass M Humboldt believed that we at
tribute the reaction OF yapors submitted 70 enormous
pressure in the interior OF the earth all shocks when
ngltate H.
From this rapid glance at the principal theories in
laOn to earthquakes IL easy To see that they turn
around fixed principle OF which the forms OF nterple
tation alone vary At present we may say that nso,y
repOses side, according TO the researches OF d.
Percy upon the attractive force or the moon ana inc
sun exered on the central fiery OF our planet; and
the other upon the chemical or probably electro
chemical action produced by the contact OF compounds
sod liquid gaseous, in the center OF the earth In
nueuCed by atmospheric agents In this respect the ate
researches OF NJ. CHI Sainte Claire Devile upon the
analysts OF volcanic emanatiOns have great vaiue.