Hawaii Holomua, Volume III, Number 136, 12 June 1894 — SHOCKING. [ARTICLE]

SHOCKING.

■ 1 What is the Use of Making a Constitution? records imiio«te tbat peop!e ha?e beeo Iook>ug for tbe end 1 j of the world at interva!s ever • since tbe world began, and predictious of tbīs cbantcter generally receive very limited credence but whou a scientific unnof tbe cbaracter of Professor Uudolph Falb of Vienua inakea a propbecy of this sort it is at least woiih ‘ thinking aboot Frofessor paib bas a repntation all over £urope for bis meteoroiogical kno«ledge *nd p«rticolarly for bis eitraor|dinary familiarity witb tbehabit» . aud custoras of eartb(jua%es. His predictions o£ lhese scisnai atic distorbances bave been remark«bly fuifil!ed. His pred>ction of the great eartbqnake at Zante last year wns publisbed in tbe press dispatcbes ail over the C3notry tbe day befoie tbe earthqoake occurred. Anotber erampie o| Lis accorate foreknovlj edge oo tbis subject i« sbowu in i tb« faot tb*t oo M >rcb 31.1893,! be vrote to tue Tourist Club of V>eana acceptiog an invitition to iectore about eart!iqnakes, but addiug that be vouid hke to defer tha b>ctore nutil efter Apnl 13th, as ao eartbqoake voold ca?eor by tbat time, vbicb woolU aid him in giviog tbem eoligbteoment Aa m matter oi fact an occurred Apiil 8th,

1 «sd fis f«ti ail oxer Soutitorn Haogsrr. Xow. however, the profosaor’s prophet;c ere h*e shol *cro«s a »pace of five yc«n, «od he »V3 j th«t Noreinber 13, 13£?9. tbe erratic w«oderer known to«strono®er's «5 the eciaet of 1866 vi!! reappe«r «od coliide with oni g!obe: ihen **the (im'woek»' *nd —d«rknes». By way of prelinainary to the m«in event, however. »t may be meottonet! that. «ccorvling to the programme. New Vork is to die-«ppe.-»r cnder a tid«l wave ne\t Jo!y oi Aiigot.t, while FIoruii «nd Califi*rnia w»Il proKtbly heeonie isl«iu!s as tbe resolt of » saboianoe e*rthqaake. The most urpleas.mt nature ■ «luvnt these prophecies is as a?ready intimated. tlie fact that thev are not prophecies at a!l. strictly s|*eaking. bnt scientific predictions based opon scient:fic investigitions inU> monilane aoatomy. To pnt Lis tlu- rifs in as s:mple a fasbioa as possib!e, it iuhv be said that Professor F.»!b believes first of al! that the deap down interior of tbe eartb is fi!led wit!» a moUen mass whieh is snb- ! ject to ebb aml tlow just like the waters of the oeean. Between the earth and the mo!ten sheoI, whieh is gradoa!ly cooling. there is only a of jan average of eighteen miles in ihiekueaa, u(Hm whieh w? morta!s live and love and dic. lu some places tho oartli's ornst is thicker ; than in otbers. Where it Ls thinnest the oonfinod terrible foroes of the under world. chiefly in the form of gas. seok constautly to escape, aud when the pressnre of the atraosphere around tbe earth is Iowest Ihe gas fi.nds an outlet, nsu«lly iu wel!-defined distriots, generully thruiigh tho , vent iioles. But beyond the constaut pres sure of gas Profes.sor Falb has the thtorv that tlie sheolic moltvu mass beneath ns is snbject to the influenceof the moon, whieh proj duces w.»ves, aiul occasionally ' great tidal waves. whieh sweeps ; ronud the innercrastof tho worl»l ■ with terrific force; ahakinp the earth in its passage. Prof* ssor Fa!b publishes every ycar a list of the days on whieh he exi ects scismic convulsions. Thcse he I ealla “critical days’—un 1 theso »l«ys are those when the moon j approaches closo to the earth. j The criticnl dnys giveu by Frqf«8sor Falb for 1894 »re stated in the order of maximum disturban- ‘ ces aa follow.s: August 30th. September 29th, Febrnary 20th March 21st, August lst; April 6. Jannary 21st. M«y 5th and Octoj ber 28tli. Thns the most serions disturbance niav be looked for ; Angnst 30th and tlie sligbfest | October 2Sth. In eonneelion with the greal scientific contest between mother ; earth and thecomot whieh. to nse a phrase cnrrent in scieutiflc cfrcles, is to be ‘*palledotr’ in 1999, 'it is recalle<i that January 14, 616. ten people were killed in China by the fall of a raeteor, In the year 823 thirty-five villages were destroyed by the fa.ll of a meteor., and many men ami anīruals were kilied. September 4, 1511. one man aud foor animaia were destroyed by fa]!ing rneteors near Crema. Noveml>cr 4. 1794, i a metecr struck the mast of a ship that was crossing the Atl«ntic, | kiiling five seamen. £ach of ibesa e »ses ean be regardcd »8 the fall of a small eo'nel np 'n onr «orld. It is a comfort to know tbat some Vienna sci«ntists be!iere tha comet is g»dng to get tha worst of it, aod poiut to the fact that the cumet Leieil, wbeu it wect too near U> Jupiter, waa tbro«n otf its cour»e «nd aenk flyiogont of oar planetary systero.