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come to hand we shall see that the last out. break in this region was even more remark. able in its sequel. Ou the 16th February we find St. Vincent disturbed, accompanied by quakes in Martinique and St. Lucia. On the 21st, we find an earthquake at Baku on the Caspian, and on or about the 9th March we find a severe quake at Rampur, near Simla, in the Himalayas. All these, as likewise happened in 1902, were situated, as can be readily seen by examining a globe, on a great circle which crossed the Equator in Ecuador, and reached its northern culmination about Trieste on the Adriatic. With this too we must connect the recent great explosion of Vesuvius, which seems to have reached its acme of destruction on or about the 10th April. We have not, however, com pleted our list of the immediate sequela.
As we stated above, Colombia is situated at the crossing of two great earthquake lines, the second of which, following the line of the Rockies, goes through the Aleutians in N.L. 55, and descends by Kamakatka, Japan and Formosa to the Equator in Sumatra, exactly 180 degrees from the other crossing ia Ecuador. Now we find equally marked effects of the disturbance along this line, as in a spider's web the slightest touch on any one point is instantly carried to the point of intersection where the spider as on a place of vantage is always to be found on watch ready to pounce on the innocent intruder. On the 24th February the Pacific mail making for Yokohama encountered a severe shock at Oo the 18th March we find Formosa the seat of a most destructive shock which caused an enormous loss of lite, and opened wide fissures in the mountains, and again, worst and most destructive of all, we find on the 18th April the proud city of San Francisco almost eutirely destroyed, partly by the earthquake and partly through the consequent fire Of the numerous earth quakes in fact which have been recorded within the last three months it is well worthy of note that two only have occurred in lines outside these two great circles, yet both in well known seismic districts, whose connections have not yet been worked out; one, apparently a most destructive one, occurred on or about the 15th March at Uliasutai in Western Mongolia, of which we only know from Chinese sources, and the other in the South Pacific in the Samoan group. It is quite possible that the connec- tions of the latter may prove to be with the prolonged Himalayan line continued beyond the Equator, but at present we miss the connecting line covered by the waters of the great ocean. The other forms part of the great Altai line, stretching from Kashgar to Lake Baikal, along which earthquakes are numerous, but always in more
or less sympathy with the Himalayan line. Now it is noteworthy that as yet the seismologists have not risen to the conception of any of these being associated with great circles; yet herein lies their special importance.
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As long ago as 1893 Mr. R. D. OLDHAM, then Superintendent of the Indian Geolo- gical Survey, pointed out the necessity of referring man of the phenomena familiär to Indian geologists to changes of latitude, these phenomena being, however, lot so familiar to European geologists have by them been steadily ignored, and the seismologists taking thence their cue have followed in the same track. The occur rence of these lines of weakness of the crust in connection with great circles points to the only conceivable cause for their presence, that is, that once they were equatorial lines, and their existence was due to the same B8 tidal action, namely the
causes
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. differential action of gravity, and in this we can find a reason for their peculiar distri- bution. We know that the force of gravity transmuted into centrifugal force is respon- | sible for the present bulging of the Equator. Practically we know of no other force capable of elevating one portion of the earth's surface above the mean. as above stated, that the geologist speaks It is true,
glibly enough of “elevatory forces", but no one has had the hardihood to suggest how they have arisen nor of what nature they are. action of such momentarily insignificant Now we know that the persistent forces as the attraction of the planet Mars does actually have far reaching effects ou the orbit of the earth. It is but a short and logical step to believe that this in turn has equally far reaching effects on the posi- tion of the axis. The explanation would require far more than the limits of an article to explain, but it will readily sug- gest itself to a mind free from the influence of the European geologists. At all events it marks progress, if we can begin to see our way towards accepting the rule of law in lieu of the mere dictates of caprice.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES AT
HONGKONG
(Daily Press, 2nd May.)
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THE modern cry of the sociologist is that crime is a disease: in the Colony of Hong- kong there are indications that disease is regarded as a crime. It should be difficult for anyone to read Mr. LAU CHU-PAK'S letter to the Sanitary Board vide Daily Press of 1st instaut without feeling that it had at least some justification. The con- ventional view of the administration of Hongkong, as concerned with matters, has been that the authorities have sanitary hitherto been too regardful of native prejudices; that the trouble has augmented by reason of a traditional official aversion to taking the bull by the horas; and we can accept this view as applying largely to the past history of Hongkong. moreover open to the persuasion that in We are some respects the same foolish tenderness is permitted to continue. But we conceive that in the matter of infectious disease, and its treatment by the sanitary authority, grave mistakes are being made; the officials work evil that good may cone. We have previously pointed out, and the suggestion has so far met no contradiction, that for reasons given their efforts and so-called precautious were in the nature of ploughing the sand, or beating the wind. According to Mr. LAU CHU-PAK, and independent observations of our own, they appear to be importing into their fight with the wind the vindictiveness of despair. Or, since it can scarcely be just to use the vindictive term in this connection, we may liken them to the small boy who fights with his eyes shut, and so bits unoffending bystanders. Infected persons, and those technically called "contacts", are treated, it is alleged, with about the same amount of considera- tion that is meted to wilful offenders against society, rather than with the sympathy and extra consideration to which their misfor tunes entitle them. These remarks apply to more diseases than plague, and to more pa- tients than Chinese. Harsh as appeare i the primitive custom of banishing plaguc-stricken people to "outer darkness", and of giving them no greater succour than the placing of provender upon a stone that marked the limit of their re-approach to society, there was in that at least no infliction of the humiliation which covers a man who finds his liberty and dignity ruthlessly encroached | upon by the compulsory use of those
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CHU-PAK refers. “convict-like garments " to which Mr. Lau grossly neglected in Hongkong is that by A principle which ⋅ is which all should bear a share (fixed on equitable considerations) of the sacrifices: incurred in defence of society as a whole. Thus, to take the case of a smallpox patient, for the public good. That is permissible. for instance, we find the victim imprisoned
CHU-PAK, that all his own clothes, including We find, as in the cases cited by Mr. Lau those clean, unworn, and untouched, are in itself a gratuitous insult and degradation, taken away; and a "convict-like" uniform, insisted upon irrespective of the patient's quality. For all this, we find that he is, unlike his neighbour in the common jail, expected to pay cash, and to pay promptly; and, if he be a poor man, to receive letters threatening legal proceedings in default. Should be, as so many find it convenient to do, reside in a public hotel, we find that there too his misfortune is regarded as a crime, or, at any rate, as something for which he alone is responsible. For what the sanitary authority's agents do to his apartments, in the interests of the public and of the hotel, he has to recompense the hotel proprietors. These apparently irre- levant details are to show that the common way of regarding a person who inadvertently suffers for his rashness in staying in a pest- ridden community is an unreasonable way.
an unfair and
less complaiut if we could believe that the This would occasion proceedings were marked by any consistency that the carelessness of the supervision of or efficacy. But it is now generally believed official ". undiscriminating and wholly unsympathetic contacts is as great as is the
harrying of un-officia! "contacts". We proposal for a sub-committee to thoroughly venture to suggest that Mr. LAU CHu-pak's investigate these matters does not go far enough, inasmuch as such an ex-officio enquiry might not be so thorough, so whole- hearted, and so radical as we need and wish for. What we would welcome would be a
tion, with His Excellenroy the GOVERNOR as special international commission of investiga- President, which would ignore all official pre- cedents and red-tape whatsoever, and invite and consider both evidence and opinions as to the past, present, and future of the whole matter. There should be no question of putting officials and persons on their defence as to matters of administration; but rather a review of principles to guide future administration. We do not wish to be misunderstood as carping at the present Sanitary Board; their motives and ambi- tions are good. It might, however, be well for them to consider if they have not been, as the absurd American axiom has it, hitching their waggon to a star and allowing some of its load to fall out at the rearward end. The sanitary waggon might travel better with a more practicable horse.
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MARKETING AT HONGKONG.
(Daily Press, 3rd May.) When a member of the Sanitary Board first raised the question of market pripes, as published in connection with domestic supplies at Hongkong, we suspected that he think that it is much ado about next te was merely mare's-nesting; and we still nothing. Still, as the Sanitary Board has now committed itself to an investigation, and as we appear to bave correspondents who regard the matter seriously, we may not err in giving some consideration to the existing arrangement, and to the aspects of it which appear to require investigation. Taking the only list of which we have any knowledge, that published in the Saturday