Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-29
ITALIAN EARTHQUAKES.
Theories Suggested by the Disturb
ances in Calabria
From the Lancet.

From the Lancet.
Rarely. even in that classic land Of
earthquakes" Calabria Ulteriore, has there
been so widespread and so disastrous
cataclysm Communes upon communes
have been partially engulfed, villages have
either wholly disappeared or have been
reduced to ruins, equally unrecogniZable
with the hundreds of human beings who
have persisted along with them Entire fam
lilies of men, women and children have been
killed outright. while thousands of individ-
uals have sustained injuries of all degrees
of gravity, from the lesion that cripples or
mains for life to those within the remedial
power of minor surgery. Add to all this
the panic, the mental prostration, of the
thousands of survivors, most of whom are
bivouacking in the open, barely clothed
without food resources of any kind, and
some notion will be formed of the human
sympathy evoked-sympathy that is sweep
ing all Italy, sending relief parties to the
scene of destruction and inspiring commit
tees of subscribers, in both of which move
ments the king (true to the traditions of his
house, has at once taken the lead.
While all this philanthropy is finding ex
preston in the work of relief ii is in the
last degree disconcerting TO think that the
cause of the disaster can neither be ex-
planned nor provided agalnst-the etiology
of earthquakes remaining, and being likely
At frequent intervals in the seventeenth.
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that
part of Italy known as the ''instep OF the
Italian boot has witnessed telluric storms
not less destructive, while all along the
littoral the earth's crust appears to be
periodically settling down or readjusting
itself, causing landslides and subsidences
like the fatal tragedy at Amalf. in which
hotel was engulfed In few minutes
Just twenty-five years ago occurred the
frightful earthquake at Casamicclola (isl-
and of Ischia), notable not only for its har-
rowing incidents. but also for the famous
controversy it evoked between Prof PaImi-
eri, director of the Vesuvian observatory,
and Count Michele de Rossi, the father of
seismology." Casamicciola, contended Prof.
Palmieri. was engulfed for this reason-to
wit, the gradual, steady thinning of the
sulfurous yapors till its bearing power
proved inadequate to sustain the many
buildings erected on II of late years for
homeopathic purposes Were that the ex-
PLANTATION" rejoined Count de Rossi. 1.-THE
submerged buildings would have been
found in the perpendicular pose in which
they went down, whereas they appeared
en- echelon, clearly the result of that un-
dulatory movement which is one of the
typical forms of the earthquake proper
And around these two theories the contro-
yersy ragged till 1t died a natural DEATH
truth lay somewhere between the two the
cries.
Since then the various geodynamic obser-,
vatories throughout Italy have been busiiy,
engaged In trying to probe the etiology of
seismic movements. but as represented by
the most completely equipped of the number
the Osservatorio di Rocca df Papa in the
Agro Romano) they have not come much
nearer a scientific explanation. Indeed.
Prof. Giovanni Agamennone OF the obser-