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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 77, 4 June 1866, Page 3

HOW THKY GET WARNING OF EaUT IIQUKES i> r Japa^t. — A correspondent of the Englishmen -writes as follows :- J 'Earthquakes have been so prevalent of late in India that they arc now a, popular topic of conversation. Many of your readers are, doubtless, unaware of a fact that the Japanecso have, for centuries past, been cognisant of a very simple mode of warning against these sudden, often dangerous, phenomena. They long ago discovered that the magnet loses its attractive power a short time previous to a shock, and have, in every house, a very simple aparatus, consisting of a magnet suspended by its own force to an iron bar, over a disc or hemisphere of bell metal, ou which it falls accordingly, and alarms the inmates, who have time to ieave the walls before they are shaken ! This plan could be easily adopted to a public alarum, I think, the weight of the fallen magnet being adequate to ignite a percussion fuse on a loaded cannon. I woador it has never been tried in civilized countries, where earthquakes have oNate years been so prevalent. 'Magnetic storms' have recently been observed by medical practitioners in Europe lobe the forerunners of epidemics, cholera especially; and I, too, iuive frequently noticed that continued earthquakes are the harbingers and attendants of epizootic pests. Is it uureasonable to suppose that concentrated gases of poisonous virulence are discharged on the .surface of the earth during these voilcnt convulsions of nature?"