THE RECENT EARTHQUAKES AT LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

To the late Homer Hamlin more than any one else is due the credit for identifying the connection between certain local structural lines and the earthquakes which have affected the region about Los Angeles, Cal., during the past month. Hamlin's work, to the writer's knowledge, covered a period of over fifteen years prior to his death a few weeks ago. He, single handed, studied the cause of more than twenty earthquakes of varying degrees of intensity which have occurred in southern California during this period. Hamlin's conclusions, few of which unfortunately ever were put in print, were that the line of structural disturbance along which the epicentrums of most of the earthquakes were located, was that which extends from the Santa Monica Mountains, north of the Soldier's Home (about ten miles northwest of the business district of Los Angeles), in a southeasterly direction through the Baldwin Hills, Dominguez Hill, El Cerrito (near Long Beach), and thence easterly to the San Joaquin Hills northeast of Newport. The section along this line which has been the greatest offender is that extending several miles southeasterly from the Baldwin Hills. From a study of the intensity records, Hamlin was inclined to believe that the actual epicentrums were coincident in general with a fault which paralleled the anticline forming the Baldwin and Dominguez Hills, and extending along the northeast base of these hills. This may be true, but the writer is inclined to the theory that the actual crustal movements which produced the shocks took place along the Baldwin Hills-Dominguez Hill line, and that the maximum surface reaction might have been greater to the east of the hills because of the more unconsolidated character of the sediments in this direction.

In the shocks that occurred in the middle of June last, the greatest intensity was at Inglewood, a town lying ten miles southwest of Los Angeles, and only a very short distance southwest of the axis of the Baldwin HillsDominguez Hills fold. This would confirm

the theory that the main line of disturbance is along the axis of this fold. In the shocks of July 16, the newspaper reports indicate only slight damage in Inglewood with the principal damage in the city of Los Angeles proper. These reports being true, it seems probable that this last tremor originated along the very pronounced fault, that extends east and west through the northwest residential district of Los Angeles, or along one of the lines of disturbance associated with this fault. It is this fault which marks the northern boundary of the oil-producing area of the Los Angeles city field, and is believed to act as a barrier to the northward migration of the oil in the sands on the down-thrown block of Pliocene sediments on the south side of the fault. This fault is part of a zone of disturbance which extends eastward past Whittier and is responsible for the structurally complex Puenta Hills north and west of Whittier. This last named town is mentioned in the dispatches as having been subjected to sharp shocks on July 16; further evidence of the probability of the cause of this earthquake being in the east-west line of disturbance just described. It would be natural to suppose that a readjustment of stresses along the Baldwin Hills-Dominguez Hills line in the earthquakes in June might develop stresses in the east-west line north of Los Angeles that relieved themselves by movements which caused the disturbances of July 16.

In connection with the earthquake history of the Los Angeles region, attention is called to the very recent earth movements that are recorded in the topography thereabouts. San Pedro Hill, over 1,000 feet in height, which marks the southwest corner of the Los Angeles Plain, has eleven wave cut terraces on its southern or ocean side, all of which are believed to be of Pleistocene age. Beds along the flanks of the Baldwin Hills-Dominguez Hills-El Cerrito fold, dipping over 30°, are known to be of Pleistocene age. Pleistocene fossils are found at a depth of over 1,000 feet in a well at Bells Station on the Los Angeles plain south of Los Angeles. At least

two different systems of terraces of Pleistocene age are found within the city of Los Angeles. Many other examples might be enumerated of evidences of the youth of the geologic and topographic features around Los Angeles, and along this part of the California coast in general.

Thus there are many reasons to expect frequent evidences of seismic activity in this region, but owing to the local character of most of the lines of structural weakness, extensive disturbances are not probable. The Great Earthquake Rift, or San Andreas Fault zone lies fully forty miles north of Los Angeles with several granite mountain ranges in between as buffers. Therefore the Los Angelenos may console themselves that they are not in the main earthquake belt.

NEW YORK

RALPH ARNOLD

AUGUSTO RIGHI

OFTEN the death of a great personality in one of the fields of pure science is only felt directly by the small band of fellow workers in that field, while the passing away of one who has contributed but little original knowledge and has merely popularized the work of investigators makes a disproportionate impression on the general public, but in the death of Augusto Righi, professor of physics in the University of Bologna, and senator of the Kingdom of Italy, both the professional

scientist and the amateur have suffered an irreparable loss. Righi combined in an inimitable way the ability to popularize the great central truths of his science with the genius of the born investigator. His published contributions in physical research cover the period of nearly fifty years and number nearly two hundred and fifty papers. Almost none of these papers are published in collaboration with other physicists, but represent his own individual work.

The present writer was privileged to spend part of one year as a guest in Righi's laboratory in Bologna. It was at the period when the first experiments of Sir J. J. Thomson and his pupils at Cambridge were providing

the foundation for the beautiful structure of the electron theory which has since been reared. Righi had been carrying on investigations along lines which made him quick to seize the significance in his own problems of the work of the Cambridge School, and there was unmistakable evidence in his laboratory of great investigative activity-every evidence but for one fact: Righi never seemed to be working-he always seemed to have leisure to discuss other peoples' problems and to attend to the direction of the research of his numerous graduate students. Commenting on this one day to Righi the present writer learned that it was his custom to do all of his own investigative work in the three or four hours of the day before breakfast when he had his laboratory wholly to himself.

His treatment of his graduate students followed the German method rather than that which seems to characterize our own methods. He rarely published the results obtained in his laboratory jointly with the student but rather gave freely of his time and advice and let the student be the sole sponsor of his own work. A notable example of this is furnished in the well-known relation between Guglielmo Marconi and Augusto Righi-Righi, the friend and co-worker of Hertz and the teacher of Marconi, the pioneer in the adaptation of the epoch-making discovery of Hertz to telegraphy. Righi's friends appear to have been jealous lest he should fail to receive proper credit for his part in making wireless communication possible; but not so Righi himself, who cared little for popular applause and actually enjoyed a fuller measure of it in his own country than ordinarily falls to the lot of the pure scientist. His own attitude towards science is well expressed in his own words in an address before one of the many societies of which he was president.

I refer to the pure science of physics, that science which does not occupy itself too much with matters of the practical application of its discoveries and does not trouble itself about the material advantages which may accrue to him who happens to make these discoveries, but above all else sets itself the task of establishing the great laws which govern the phenomena of the inanimate universe.

To this great task Righi devoted natural abilities singularly adapted to the needs of his science in the period of his greatest productive activity, when our views as to the nature of electricity and of matter were undergoing a fundamental reorganization.

Righi was a serious and well-trained thinker brought up in the old school and one who was too experienced to be led astray by brilliant generalizations which lacked sound experimental confirmatory evidence, and yet withal he possessed in some measure those gifts which we are most likely to associate with the poet or with women than we are with a man in an exact science the gifts of imagination and intuition. That these two qualities were necessary in the building up of the electron theory nobody will deny. They are possessed by the living Thomson, Rutherford and a few of their co-workers and they were possessed by the dead Righi, and his name will stand with theirs in the history of his science.

AUGUSTUS TROWBRIDGE

SCIENTIFIC EVENTS

THE CENTENARY OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS THE commemoration of the centenary of Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., who died on June 19, 1820, has been celebrated by the Linnean Society. According to the report in Nature, Dr. B. Daydon Jackson read the first communication on Banks as a Traveller," speaking of his four overseas voyages-first, the visit to Newfoundland in H.M.S. Niger, on board which his friend Constantine Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, was a lieutenant; next, the adventurous voyage of the Endeavour, * Lieutenant Cook commander, when Banks so amply proved his value in many untoward events; third, the voyage to Iceland; and fourth, his trip to Rotterdam in 1773, when he was still eager for an expedition to the north. The second paper, by Dr. A. B. Rendle, was entitled "Banks as a Patron of Science." Banks's life from his return to England in 1771 until its close in 1820 was that of an enthusiastic, liberal, and generally far-sighted patron of science. A friendship

began with King George, which steadily increased, and Banks was consulted on important matters of very various kinds. He became botanical adviser to the King in relation to the Royal Gardens at Kew, which developed under Banks's guidance, becoming the repository of plants of economic and ornamental value from all parts of the world. Banks initiated or encouraged voyages of exploration, and kept up an extensive corre spondence with men interested in science overseas. His house in Soho Square was the rendezvous of students and men of all classes interested in schemes of philanthropy or science; his magnificent library and herbarium were at the service of other workers, and after his death were bequeathed to the British Museum. For forty-two years he was president of the Royal Society. He was very closely, though indirectly, associated with the origin of the Linnean Society. Mr. James Britten, in the third paper, began by remarking that much of his paper was based upon the daily use of Banksian specimens for nearly half a century in the British Museum. The author showed that the popular belief that Banks left all his botanic work to his secretaries and curators, Solander and Dryander, was a mistaken one, and that Banks displayed great botanic acquirements. The president remarked that official records of the British Museum testified to the active interest taken by Banks in all matters connected with its advancement, and that keepers and trustees alike referred to him for his advice and decision. Certain objects closely connected with Banks were exhibited.

THE EPIDEMIC OF INFLUENZA IN ENGLAND

A FURTHER report on the great influenza epidemic has been issued by the Registrar-General. According to the abstract in the London Times the report states that the deaths allocated to influenza during 1918 numbered 112,329, the males being 53,883 and the females 58,446. The males included 7,591 non-civilians, and, deducting these, the deaths of civiljans corresponded to a mortality of 3,129 per 1,000,000 civilian population.

No such mortality as this has ever before been recorded for any epidemic in this country since registration commenced, except in the case of the cholera epidemic in 1849, when the mortality from that cause rose to 3,033 per 1,000,000 population. None of the previous outbreaks of influenza can compare in mortality with that of 1918-19. During the 46 weeks, June 23-May 10, the total deaths allocated to the disease were 151,446, including 140,989 of civilians, the corresponding civilian death-rate for these 46 weeks being at the annual rate of 4,774 per 1,000,000 population.

It is pointed out that the mortality attributed to influenza does not represent the whole of that caused by it. The entries under other headings, especially those of respiratory disease, were always bound to increase during an epidemic, and though that did not occur in 1918 to the same extent as in other recent outbreaks, allowance must be made for these increases in mortality, allocated to other causes but really attributable to influenza, in endeavoring to measure the loss of life caused by the epidemic.

With regard to the deaths of females, when pneumonia, bronchitis, heart disease and phthisis are included, the deaths attributable to the epidemic during the third quarter of 1918 were 7,741, and during the fourth quarter 62,240. The figures for males for the same quarters were 8,088 and 51,359, respectively.

In earlier years influenza was less important under 55 years and more so above that period. In 1918-19 this position was suddenly and violently reversed. Those under 35 died in appalling number; those over 55 seemed to be relatively safe. The report says:

It may be doubted whether so sudden and so complete a change of incidence can be paralleled in the history of any other disease, yet all the weight of medical testimony goes to show that the influenza of 1918 was essentially the same as that of former years. Attempts have been made to explain the change as due to alteration in the circumstances of the population. Thus it has been suggested that aggregation of young women in munition works in 1918 may partly account for their specially heavy mortality. No simple explanation on these lines is possible. The alteration in age incidence accompanying the increased prevalence and fatality of the disease in 1918 seems to

be more easily explained by a sudden change in the infecting organism than in the soil provided for its growth.

THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE FOOD AND DRUG ACT1

DURING the last few years the people of the United States have been given a very material amount of protection against those swindlers who sophisticate the foodstuffs and drug supplies of the country. Especially good work has been done in obtaining convictions against "patent medicine" fakers who have made false and fraudulent claims for their nostrums. This protection has been. given through the enforcement of the federal Food and Drugs Act. The administration of this law rests with the Department of Agriculture, which acting through its Bureau of chemistry, collects evidence and lays the groundwork for the legal machinery of the government to proceed against the offender. The activity of the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture has, of course, aroused the strongest antagonism on the part of the nostrum interests. These interests may well rejoice in the recent action of congress in cutting down the appropriations for the Department of Agriculture. Even under the appropriation given for the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, 1920, the department was greatly hampered in its work of enforcing the Food and Drugs Act. Under the plea of economy, Congress has reduced the appropriation for the enforcement of this act by thirty thousand dollars. The Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter, a highgrade and conservative publication, well states the fact, in commenting on this disgraceful condition of affairs, when it says:

Under the reduced amount provided for next year, it will be impossible to supervise the regulation of the Food and Drugs Act as it should be supervised. This portends a rich harvest for those who misbrand and adulterate medicinal, pharmaceutical, disinfectant and other preparations. The vast public, which daily purchases and consumes

1 From the Journal of the American Medical Association.

ALASKA SURVEYS AND INVESTIGATIONS
IN 1920

UNDER the appropriation of $75,000 made for the investigation of the mineral resources of Alaska, the Geological Survey has dispatched seven field parties. The work to be done is that of extending the surveys and investigations which were begun in 1898.

G. H. Canfield is continuing investigations of the water powers of southeastern Alaska in cooperation with the Forest Service. The water powers are important not only to mining but to the wood-pulp industry.

In July L. G. Westgate will make a geologic reconnaissance of the region adjacent to Hyder, on Portland Canal, where gold and silver bearing lodes have been found.

F. H. Moffit, geologist, with H. Insley as assistant and C. P. McKinley, topographic engineer, are making reconnaissance surveys on the west side of Cook Inlet between Iliamna Bay and Snug Harbor. Their special mission is to survey the Iniskin oil field.

J. R. Eakin is making topographic reconnaissance surveys in the headwater regions of Susitna River, in order to complete as soon as possible the mapping of the region tributary to the government railroad.

P. S. Smith is making a geologic reconnaissance of the placer districts tributary to Richardson, on Tanana River. This region has long been a producer of placer gold in a small way. Promising deposits of auriferous gravels have been reported in it during the last two

years.

Alfred H. Brooks accompanied Secretary Payne to Alaska in July, the objective being the Alaska Railroad and the Matanuska coal

field. Later Mr. Brooks, in company with Arthur E. Wells, metallurgist of the Bureau of Mines, will visit some of the copper-bearing districts of the Pacific seaboard of Alaska.

G. C. Martin is on the way to McGrath, on Kuskokwim River, to investigate the mineral resources in that vicinity. This district produces considerable placer gold and contains some promising gold-bearing lodes.

The geologic and topographic reconnaissance surveys of Seward Peninsula were completed some years ago, but a detailed study of its mineral deposits must still be made, and this study has been assigned to S. H. Cathcart. Mr. Cathcart began work at Nome about July 1 and will continue until the end of the field

season.

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS

AT its commencement exercises Harvard University conferred its doctorate of laws on Professor Roscoe Pound, dean of the Harvard Law School, whom President Lowell characterized as "lawyer and botanist; judge, teacher and writer, protean in interest; vindicator of the expansive power of the common law, who has also taken all jurisprudence as his privince and mastered it." In conferring degrees of doctor of science President Lowell said: "William Williams Keen: a surgical officer in the Civil War, the Spanish War and the World War— a man whose career in his profession has been one of long and ever rising distinction; the dean of American surgery." "Hermann Michael Biggs: Pathologist and physician; guardian of the public health; who, by his combat with tuberculosis in New York, has rescued countless lives."

COLONEL RICHARD P. STRONG, of Harvard University, chief medical director of the League of Red Cross Societies, has been elected to honorary membership in the Serbian Medical Society as an expression of admiration for his scientific achievements, and as a mark of appreciation for the great sympathy which he showed to the Serbian people.

DR. J. S. FLETT, F.R.S., at present assistant to the director in Scotland, has been appointed