The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-11

Our last letter from Lima gives a ludicrous
picture of the effect of a savants prediction.
A Catholic clergyman in Leipsic, the Rev.
Mr.. Falb, editor of the Sirius, a scientific
journal, foretold that, about the close of
September, Peru and Ecuador would be over
whelmed by a tremendous earthquake. The
assertion, confidently made, turns all Lima
out of doors in terror at loss almost as
serious as that of a real earthquake. The
theory on which Father Falb founded his
prophecy is, that the phenomena of earth
quakes are produced by the influence of the
moon and other celestial bodies on the masses
of water within our planet. We are inclined
to think he meant, instead, the attraction of
the moon and sun on the igneous masses of
the earth's interior. The fact that in the last
days of September the earth was nearer to
the sun and moon than for many years past,
and the attraction of these two
bodies was accordingly augmented, gave great
color of support to Mr.. Falb's theory. The
earthquake, being expected, declined to come,
and science is nibbling its fingers again over
the laws of this strange phenomenon. To the
prediction of comets and eclipses we shall
doubtless one day add that of phenomena
which now battle us. We already foretell the
recurrence of the shooting stars of August
and November and, with more attention, we
may in accordance with Redfield's theory,
predict the fearful hurricane which desolates
annually our American coast. Theories as to
the cause of earthquakes are innumerable
Their primary cause, as well as their intimate
nature is no more known than their relations
to the whole of atmosphere terrestrial phe-
nomena. The ancient philosophers attribu eed
earthquakes to ordinary air which was blazing
| in the bowels of the earth. This
| air engulfed in cavities of the
earth is condensed into Clouds is
| compressed, accumulates, is loosed, revolves
| circularly, OF in a whirlwind, and, finding
vent. escapes with crash by terribly shaking
the ground. Such is one OF the first theories
sustained by Anaximander, Anaxagoras, Aris-
totle, and even Seneca with others as re-
nowned All we can say at present is, that
earthquakes naturally belong to dynamic
phenomena, while in their origin certain
electro-chemical actions must play either a
primary or secondary part The ground is
shaken by system Of waves of diverse kinds.
According to the mode of first impulsion,
these are sent from the interior to the out
side of the earths crust, and rice UeTSd, as
well as to certain depth of the heated mass
below. The idea of comparing the progress
of earthquakes to sonorous waves was first
proposed by DR.. Young, and sustained by
Gay-Lussac
MANY philosophers of antiquity, and
among them Pliny, compared earthquakes to
subterranean lthunders. DIR. Stukeley read
before the Royal Society OF London, In 100,
memoirs in which he held that electricity was
the cause of earthquakes. Beccaria was of
the same opinion. Hyacinthe Coggo who
} compiled journal of the shocks felt a
Burgos, held that they came from electricity
condensed within the earth Nicholson be
lieved that they were caused by discharges
between the clouds and the earth. Abb'
Bertholon held SO strongly this idea that hi
: invented earthquake rods and volcano rod
: to carry of as much as possible the fulminat
ing matter stored up within the globe. Ii
7 1856 NJ Ferdinand Hoefer, appearing to b'
4 ignorant of the labors of his predecessors
( compared earthquakes to true subterraneal
a storms in a solid medium, as Pliny had don
t before him. Until the earthquake at Alb
: in 1771, Father Beccaria be
d slieyed that electricity was the primar,
: cause of the shocks; but from that date h
: attributed them specially to dissomtions o
o pyrites. Vassali- Eaudi, a disciple Of Beccaria
g adopted. later, his masters theory, and hel,
If that the electricity developed in the fermen
y tation of sulphurous pyrites extended it
If effects. Dr. Lister was of the same opinion
8. This theory deserved to be taken anew int
8, notice, not exclusively from The point G
a. the dissolution of the pyrites, but in connet
ton with the electro-chemical actions and r.