r kind of cells, if they were all perfect and similar to each ›r, in that case, no development could ensue. For all nordevelopment is evermore a movement from a lower to a her order of form, while a perfect cell or hollow sphere, homoeous everywhere, is already in possession of the most perform. It has attained the form of repose. No normal de›pment of it is possible. A form may, indeed, be truly sphel externally, and yet be capable of development, provided it e a living interior, in which there are eyes or eddies, or conts of any kind, which are not themselves cells complete all nd, and concentric with the outer cell; and such I conceive e the structure of spores, &c. But before perfect cells, dened to represent and reproduce a compound organism, can enabled really to do so, they must be elaborated and thrown by that organism in sets, amounting at least to a couple, the members of which are in some important features dissimilar ach other. Given such cells in couples, and presented to h other so that they may unite (and being dissimilar, and nearly related, they cannot but tend to unite), and then d being supplied, there may be development similar and al to that of the parent or parents.

Account of the Earthquake Shock in Cornwall on the 13th January 1860. By RICHARD EDMONDS.*

05 Within a period of less than seven months ending with the 7 above mentioned, this county has been visited with four siderable earthquake shocks, each more alarming than its decessor, and the last as smart as any recorded here. The t two were not felt on dry land, but occasioned extraordiy agitations of the sea, which I very fully described at the t meeting of this Society, in a paper printed in the "Edingh New Philosophical Journal" for July last; since which ave seen Mr Mallet's fourth Report on the Facts and Theory Earthquake Phenomena in the "British Association Report" 1858. In his first Report he ascribed such agitations f Read at annual meeting of the Royal Geological Society of Corr

24th October 1860.

the sea, when unaccompanied with known earthquakes, to submarine landslips. In a paper read before this Society in 1855, I showed that such an explanation was incapable of being reconciled with the facts. In his fourth Report, although he still imagines a submarine landslip to be "a vera causa," he asks, "is it the cause of any of these phenomena ?" I do not see how it can be even a cause of any of those crestless tide-like currents which characterise these agitations, and which occupy generally from five to ten minutes in each efflux, and the same length of time in each influx.

Since these extraordinary agitations of the sea on the 25th of June and the 4th of October 1859, on the south-western coasts of England, an earthquake shock on dry land was felt in most parts of Cornwall, including Penzance and Ludgvan, on Friday the 21st of October 1859, at 6:45 P.M., the weather throughout the island having on that day become suddenly very cold and boisterous, with furious hail-storms. A similar and an equally sudden and remarkable change of weather throughout Great Britain commenced on the 14th of December following, when a whirlwind of unusual character visited the neighbourhood of Penzance, and was succeeded on the following day by an earthquake shock in Yorkshire. An account of these phenomena I communicated to the Royal Institution of Cornwall, which was printed in the "Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal" for October last.

On the 13th of January 1860 (one lunation after the whirlwind), an earthquake shock as smart as any here on record was felt at 10.30 P.M. (local time), through nearly the whole of Cornwall from the Land's End to Callington, and from the Lizard and Mevagissy to Newquay and Wadebridge; and although its extent scarcely exceeded that of 21st of October 1859, the persons who felt it were probably twenty times as many. Like that shock, too, it was followed by

an hour afterwards; in the former case at T ter at Liskeard.

other about the lat

w why

to was bsided. Society, rcular to

most of the mine agents in Cornwall, requesting to be informed (amongst other things) whether any persons under ground at the time felt "any trembling or movement of the ground, or heard any particular noise;" and if so, "the direction it came from;" and from the replies he received, I hoped he would himself have drawn up a report for this meeting, But as he preferred handing over the letters to me for that purpose, I will here quote all that is important in them. The facts unconnected with mines are derived from the newspapers, when no other source of information is mentioned.

In the Land's End district, the only places where the shock was felt, or the noise heard underground, are in the neighbourhood of St Ives. At St Ives Consols Mine, 66 one of our agents, sitting in the account-house, heard a noise like a heavy train passing, and saw a tumbler of water on the table in agitation, and two of our men underground, 130 fathoms from surface, heard a rumbling noise, and experienced a trembling sensation, and some of the shipping afloat felt as if they were going aground." At the Providence Mines, in the adjoining parish of Lelant, there was heard at the seventy-five fathom level (which is nearly 125 fathoms from the surface) a noise as though a kibble (an iron bucket) had fallen into a shaft, or a stull (a wooden platform) had given way, but no motion was felt in the rock. In none of the other mines of the Land's End district was any shock felt, or sound, heard, by persons underground; whereas on the surface, in almost every locality, both the shock and the sound were observed, and in some places the shock was very alarming. At Spearne Moor Mine, in St Just, the account-house "shook so as to cause the things on the mantelpiece to tingle”"the account-house stands on the back of the lode on which the mine is worked." "At Balleswidden, the sound came from the south of east, and passed away to the north of west." "At Ding Dong they heard a noise and felt a slight vibration. The weather was thick and hazy, with very little wind." At St Ives some felt their beds to rock, and the night was very dark. At Hayle, a great many persons who heard the sound concluded that a special railway train had passed at that unusual hour, and agatekeeper jumped out of bed supposing that the gate

had been dashed to pieces by some unexpected railway engine. The stoker on board H. M. ship "Bann," a flat-bottomed steamer then aground on the pier of Penzance, informed me that being below deck, he felt the ship to shake for six or eight seconds, as does a house when a heavy carriage is rolling by it over a paved road; and at the same time he heard the chaincables by which she was secured at her bows, making a noise as if they had been dashed up and down on the rocks, on which they were partly lying. In several houses in Penzance glasses struck against each other, and in one house the floor vibrated so much, that its occupant in terror caught at some support. The chief officer of the coast-guard, in his letter printed in the following "Cornish Telegraph," says, that at Mousehole the shock appeared to travel from S. to N., and was felt throughout the town. Those in bed felt as if on board a steamer in a heavy sea. The toilet table at which his daughter was standing, appeared as if a person had taken it by one end and shaken it violently, and the various things on it positively appeared to dance. She was much alarmed, but could not move, as the floor appeared to rise and fall under her feet. The sea was greatly agitated, and directly afterwards was a heavy squall of wind and rain. The shock was particularly violent at St Michael's Mount, where plaster fell from some of the houses, and at Trengwainton, where earthenware was thrown down; at the former place the granite protrudes through the slate; at the latter, the granite again appears on the surface. In the Scilly Isles no shock was felt, nor sound heard.

Eastward of the Land's End district, and through the greatest part of Cornwall, the tremor and the noise were also very considerable. In Carrick Road, in Falmouth Harbour, "the master of a barque at anchor was so alarmed by the sudden sharp movement of his vessel, that he jumped out of his sleeping berth to ascertain the cause. The noise was heard generally through Falmouth, and was like that produced by some heavily laden vehicle, with more or less intensity of vibration of windows, china and glass. Some felt their beds rock; and one person describes the effect as that of an explosion, an undulating motion being distinctly felt on the ground

floor; and the door of an oven, which had been left open, being heard to swing to and fro, closing with a sharp noise." At Penryn and Helston the shock was also very alarming. At Ponsanooth some plaster was thrown down from a wall. At Dolcoath Mine the tremor was preceded and followed by a rumbling noise, and miners there heard the sound 260 fathoms beneath the surface. At North Wheal Crofty, "the men, at 170 fathoms from the surface, heard an unusual rumbling noise." At Redruth it was felt underground at various depths, from 10 to 190 fathoms, and appeared to proceed from S.E. by E., and to be moving towards the opposite points; many there, and at Mount Hawk, in St Agnes, "were so much alarmed, as to leave their beds in a state of bewilderment." In the United Mines, Gwennap, it was felt at the 208 fathoms level. It was also felt underground at Polberro Mine, near Par. But in most of the mines of Cornwall it was felt on the surface. At Great Busy, Chacewater, says the agent, "I heard a rumbling noise, which I thought to be the night-agent drawing some of the furniture on the wood floor of the captain's changing-room. In two seconds I felt the counting-house vibrate for ten seconds; after that, I thought one of the boilers had burst, but on looking to the engines I found all right; consequently, I supposed it to be the shock of an earthquake, or some awful crush below ground. At the western engine, one of the agents on the boiler top thought something was wrong with the boilers; my attention was called to them, and I found all was right. About thirty minutes afterwards several of the people from that district came to the engine-house, with every expectation of an explosion having occurred, each expecting something fatal, as the furniture had a most dreadful shake. It appeared to us the sound and shaking came from the west, and lasted ten or twelve seconds." At Truro, it commenced with a loud rumbling noise, like that of a heavy waggon over rough pavement; this lasted two or three seconds, and was followed by a loud dull thump or shock, like a burst of deadened thunder, causing houses to shake and glasses, &c., to dance and jingle in a startling manner; many in bed were so alarmed as to jump out. At St Dennis, "the chairs, the table (with a supper party around it), the plates