The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-25
ABOUT EARTHQUAKES.
Former Shocks in EngIand-Last Years
Record of Earthquake Losses.

which Glastonbury was DESTROYED; the greatest
known in that country up to that time. on No
vember IA, 1918; slight shock in London on
February 8, l149, and severer one on March 3;
and the latest recorded, very slight one in the
northwestern part of England November 9.
1852 England, as will be seen from the above
instances. has had little practical experience
of earthquakes and they loom, therefore,
large with all the terrors of the unknown,
added to those of the truly terrible. The mere
word of mailman that earthquake was
to be expected on a certain day was sufficient
to send thousands of persons of wealth and fash
ion to spend the night of April 6, 1850 in Hyde
Park, in tents and carriages. April passed,
however, and the trembling bivouackers re-
turned home, disappointed of their earthquake.
In a country where such disturbances are fire
quent few people would think it worth while to
be robbed of a nights rest for such a trife.
Fondness for earthquakes is an acquired taste.
Natives of land where the ground is seldom still
come to be quite proud of their volcanoes and
mud -squirts as in New Zealand and like to
point out their phenomena to visitors, who, for
their part, are perpetually on the qui vive lest
the ground should suddenly get up behind their
backs and swallow them. The natives of Catania
were once excessively indignant because Sir
John Herschel reduced the height of Etna, the
pride and boast of the locality which it had twice
destroyed, by some three thousand feet, with his
scientific measurements.
AnaXagoraS. starting from purely scientific
basis, argued, 400 years before Christ, that earth
quakes and volcanoes were simply the results of
underground lightning, and after an earthquake
had been felt in London in 1749 men of science
again began to conceive the new opinion" that
earthquakes were due to subterranean eectric-
ty. Anaxagoras, if they had lived thousand
years earlier, would have told them as much
But between these two dates the errors that pre-
vailed upon the subject were frightful enough
to produce the effect attributed to the earth
quake at Meacum, which ''caused the hair to
stare for fear in all beholders." The learned
Administrations, Avicenna and Almanzor-
were nv Thomas RrOXVna Of bal
ing the doctrine of the Koran that earth
quakes arise from the motion of great bull upon
whose horns the earth is poised. Unfortunately
however, it happens that the Koran teaches
nothing of the sort But one ridiculous item of
doctrine more or less in that volume makes little
difference among so mary, as queer opinions
about earthquakes were common enough with
out dragging the "learned Arabicks' into the
muddle. Sir Thomas Browne himself appears
to have suspected much of the true nature of
earthquakes, as it is understood ut present and
left in his Popular Errors precise directions
for their manufacture, so that in the next
century Lemery, famous French experiment
alist enjoyed the pleasure of seeing an earth
quake-composed of sulphur, water and iron
filings. wrapped in a rag and buried under
ground-in full activity in his own back garden
Last year will take its place in the grim cate
CORY of those years in which the world has suf-
fered from an abnormal visitation of earth
quakes. There have been many such years In
the history of the world. but probably few in
which the results have been so disastrous For
example, there was the year l703, when 200
persons persisted at Aquilla. in Italy, and 10000
were overwhelmed in the ruins of the capital of
Japan. Then there was an extraordinary mani
festation of subterranean force which well-nigh
shook the whole world in the year 17o5. This
manifestation commenced at Quito, in the month
of April Having destroyed that city, it passed
to the north of Persia and there, on June Z, slew
10000 persons After taking a somewhat Cir
cuitous route along northern Europe, it suddenly
made descent upon western and southern
Europe, concentrating its destructive force at
Lisbon. In this final outburst not only was the
town of Lisbon destroyed, but the whole Of Spain
seriously affected while the shock was felt
in greater or less degree over no less an area
than five thousand miles. Another great earth
quake year was 1919 a rapid series OF shocks
causing fearful fatality in India, Genoa, Paler-
mo, Rome, Aleppo and Chill. 1851 again brought
a series of earthquakes the effects of which were
felt almost simultaneously at Rhodes. n South
Italy, and at Valparaiso. The Japanese capital
was again destroyed in 1855, along with several
villages iii central Europe and one of the islands
of the Moluceas. The last year in which any
distinct connection could be traced between vari-
Gus shocks of earthquake was 1867, when the dis
aster occasioned was appalling
4 The science of earthquakes has not yet gone
so far as to determine the exact nature of the
connection between apparently isolated shocks
occurring within brief interval of time. OBJ
viously the rate of progress which these subter
ranean disturbances make must be exceedingly
great, and the energy they possess must increase
as they proceed, if we accept the supposition
that the disaster in Java, for example, has any
relation with the one which has deSolated one of
the fairest islands of Italy If one takes map
of the world and draws a line, commencing on
the western shore of Great Britain, and proceeds
thence by almost any route that may please the
fancy through lschia to Java and then on to
Japan, it will be seen how very arbitrary a
course the earthquake energy must take, as
Stunning a connection between the various shocks
Moreover, any theory that may be based upon
this SuppositiOn encounters difficulty from the
degrees in which the energy declares itself at
different places.
Strange to say, the frightful catastrophe which
took place at Java was predicted three years ago
by scientist of the name of Delaunay in a me-
moir presented by him to the French Academic
des Sciences in 1881. M. Delaunay indicated
Aug 2 1883, as the probable date of the cata-
clysm, and thus made a mistake of two days In
the same memoir he states that another and
much more terrific CONFUSION of nature will take
place in the same spot in 1886 A number of
seismic observatories already exist in Italy their
purpose being to detect the presence of an abnor
NAL electric energy in the earth or the occurrence
OF subterranean movements, however slight. 1t
has been said that if some such observatory had
existed in the island of Isehia sufficient warning
would have been given to enable the inhabitants
to leave their houses before the final
catastrophe came Upon this question of warn
ing there is good deal to be said which proba
bly, will discourage us from hoping for any great
results. People generally rush to the two ex-
tremes of panic or indifference. Examples of
both may easily be given They abound in the
literature of earthquakes and of other dIsas
tiers.
In Yeddo, in the year 1888, frightful catas-
trophe occurred, of which the worst effects
might have been averted had the inhabitants
taken heed of the abundant warning they re-
ceived. The accounts state that at o'clock
on the morning of July p "a great wind arose,
accompanied by subterranean muttering, which
continued augmenting from day to day. The
people, instead of realizing the possibility of an
earthquake being near at hand, went about their
ordinary vocations and lived in their houses al
together Indifferent to what any one would have
supposed was their obvious danger. On
August l, five days after the first warning, an
earthquake with loud thunders shook all the
houses to their foundations, the intensity of the
shocks each moment increasing until the sum