Stonyhurst College Research Articles

Charles Waterton (1782-1865): curare and a Canadian National Park.

Charles Waterton was born on 3 June 1782 at Walton Hall, near Wakefield in the north of England. He was known as the Squire of Walton Hall and became one of England’s best-known nineteenth-century naturalists and taxidermists. At the age of 14 he was sent to the newly founded Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, which was run by Jesuit priests, with whom he kept up correspondence and visits throughout his long life. In 1804, at the age of 22, he left England to manage family estates in Demerara, in what is now Guyana. Then in 1812 he gave up the estates and set off on the first of his four Wanderings in South America, which are described in a book of that title, first published in 1825 and most recently republished in 1975 [1]. The remainder of his life was devoted to natural history, taxidermy and the establishment of the world’s first bird sanctuary at Walton Hall. He died in May 1865 and is buried in the grounds of Walton Hall, which has recently been restored and is now a most attractive country club.

A letter book of the first earl of Salisbury at stonyhurst college, with special reference to the Spanish correspondence

A letter book of the first earl of Salisbury at stonyhurst college, with special reference to the Spanish correspondence

The Catholic Record Society Prospective Volumes

The C.R.S. has in preparation a number of volumes designed to throw light on several parts of Catholic history since the Reformation. The fifty-first volume to be issued will be The Wisbech Stirs (1595-1598), edited by Miss P. Renold. This brings together related documents from a number of sources including St. Paul's Cathedral Library, the Inner Temple, Westminster Cathedral Archives, and Stonyhurst College. This volume is in the press and will be issued to members in 1958.

British Seismological Observatories

THE Stonyhurst College Observatory has now ceased to record earthquakes, as has also the Royal Observatory at Edinburgh. Mr. E. W. Pollard has moved from the Isle of Wight to Dorking, Surrey, and hopes to set up his seismograph at his new home. He has presented a seismograph with mass 40 lb. to the County Secondary Grammar School at Newport, Isle of Wight, where the instrument has been set up and is being standardized. It is hoped to install good time-keeping apparatus shortly.

Stonyhurst College Observatory

THE closing of Stonyhurst Observatory on December 31, 1947, brings to an end more than a century of scientific work. Founded in 1838, the Observatory has been staffed and maintained by the Society of Jesus. Its first work was purely meteorological, and this has been continued throughout its existence. The Royal Society Commission, which in 1867 replaced the Board of Trade in the organisation of meteorological observations in Britain, selected Stonyhurst as one of the seven principal stations, each of which it supplied with standardized equipment and continuously recording instruments. For many years these stations formed the mainstay of British meteorology.

Earthquake in Britain

AN earth tremor approximately of scale 4½ on the modified Mercalli scale (scale 5—felt by nearly everyone, many awakened, some dishes, windows, etc., broken, a few instances of cracked plaster, unstable objects overturned; disturbance of trees, poles and other tall objects sometimes noticed; pendulum clocks may stop) in the epicentral region occurred on December 30, 1944, about 12.35 a.m. G.M.T. It was recorded on Mr. J. J. Shaw's seismograms at West Bromwich, and here the record lasted about two minutes. The seismograph at Stonyhurst College Observatory was unhinged by the shock so that the full record was not obtained. Reports are not yet to hand from other observatories. The tremor was felt by people over a radius of approximately a hundred miles, and was reported from Carlisle, Newcastle, Norfolk, Derby and intermediate places. No damage or casualties have been reported. So far as can be ascertained there was no noise associated with the tremor. In the north of England this was the greatest tremor since the North Sea earthquake (epicentre latitude 53·7° N., longitude 1·3° E.) of June 7, 1931. A somewhat greater tremor shook Scotland and England on October 23, 1839, when the epicentre was near Comrie.

Earthquake of April 8 in the Philippines

IN NATURE of April 18 reference was made to an earthquake of considerable severity (probably submarine) in the neighbourhood of the Philippines on April 8. This shock and two smaller aftershocks were recorded at Bombay. The Rev. J. P. Rowland, S.J., obtained a beautiful record of this earthquake on the Milne-Shaw seismograph at Stonyhurst College Observatory. The tentative readings of this seismogram tend to support an epicentre near the Philippines as suggested by Riverview. The shock began recording at Stonyhurst on April 8 with i at 15h. 58m. 00s. U. T., had a maximum at 16h. 34m. 30s. U. T. and finished recording at 18h. 31m. U. T.

Recent Earthquakes

ON the evening of November 25 an earthquake caused some apprehension in Lisbon and the surrounding country, though little material damage appears to have been done. Details of recordings from seismographic observatories are awaited before the exact epicentre can be determined. Several of these observatories report very large amplitudes. Fordham University (New York) reports the largest amplitudes since 1910; at Mr. J. J. Shaw's observatory at West Bromwich the recording levers were thrown out of their sockets; at Stonyhurst College Observatory the limits of registration exceeded the width of the paper; the shock was recorded at Kew and Oxford, though, according to Miss E. F. Bellamy, the amplitudes were not so great at the latter place.

Official Publications Received

Great Britain and Ireland Stonyhurst College Observatory. Results of Geophysical and Solar Observations, 1935; with Report and Notes of the Director, Rev. J. P. Rowland. Pp. xx+46. (Blackburn: Stonyhurst College Observatory.) [195]

Announcements

THE REV. J. P. ROWLAND, S.J., has been appointed director of the Stonyhurst College Observatory, in succession to the Rev. E. D. O‘Connor, S.J., who has been appointed rector of the College.

News and Views

ON May 3, shortly before 9.26 a.m., a sharp local earth-shake was felt, chiefly in the coal-mining district to the north-west of Manchester. The area in which the shock was strongly felt is about 13 miles long and 9 or 10 miles wide, and includes about 100 square miles, but at one or two places outside it was also slightly felt. The shock was strong enough to cause slight damage, such as overthrowing chimney-pots, at Eccles, Irlam-o'-th'-Heights, Patricroft, etc. Tremors were recorded at the Stonyhurst College observatory, beginning at 9 h. 25 m. 56 s. and lasting 40 sec., but not at the Godlee observatory in Manchester nor at the Bidston observatory near Birkenhead. The small disturbed area (probably less than 200 square miles) and the high intensity near its centre point to a very slight depth of focus, such, for example, as the depth of the coal-seams worked in the district. The longer axis of the disturbed area runs about north-west and south-east, in the direction of the Pendleton or Irwell Valley fault, and the centre of the area lies close to the fault-line. It is probable that the earth-shake was caused by a slip along this fault, and that the slip was precipitated, not by natural causes, as in the Bolton earthquake of Feb. 10, 1889, but by the removal of coal in the neighbourhood of the fault. It is of some interest to notice that the disturbed area of the recent earth-shake almost coincides with that of one, not quite so strong, that occurred on Nov. 25, 1905, and that the places where slight damage to chimneys occurred last Sunday lie close to the centre of the innermost isoseismal of 1905, and to the centres of similar but still slighter shocks on Feb. 27, 1899, and April 7, 1900 (Geol. Mag., vol. 7, p. 175; 1900: vol. 8, p. 361; 1901: and vol. 3, pp. 171-176; 1906).

Stonyhurst College Observatory

Stonyhurst College Observatory

Stonyhurst College Observatory

Stonyhurst College Observatory

The Transit of Mercury, 1927 November 10, observed at Stonyhurst College Observatory

The Transit of Mercury, 1927 November 10, observed at Stonyhurst College Observatory

Reviews of Books

Abstract Abstract History of the Great War: The Campaign in Mesopotamia, 1914–1918. Vol. IV. Based on Official Documents by Brig.-General F. J. Moberly; C.B., C.S.I., D.S.O. (H.M. Stationery Office). 15s. od. The Remaking of Modern Armies. By Captain B. H. Liddell Hart. (John Murray, London). 10s. 6d. net. Tank Handbook: Supplementary Chapters. (Taschenbuch der Tanks Erganzungsband, 1927). (J. F. Lehmann). 8 marks. Air Facts and Problems. By Brig.-General Lord Thomson, C.B.E., D.S.O. (John Murray, London). 6s. La Victoire Franco-Espagnole Dans Le Rif. By Lieut.-Colonel Laure. (Librairie Plon, Paris). Frs. 15. Æsculapius Armaque. By Major M. B. H. Ritchie, D.S.O., Royal Army Medical Corps. (Bale, Sons & Danielsson, London). 1927. 5s. net. The Diary of Henry Teonge, 1675–1679. Edited by G. E. Manwaring. (G. Routledge & Sons). 12s. 6d. Stonyhurst War Record: A Memorial of the part taken by Stonyhurst Men in the Great War. By the Rev. Francis Irwin, S.J., late C.F. Issued by the Authorities of Stonyhurst College, 1927. Wolfiana: Facts, etc., relating to the Life of James Wolfe. By J. C. Webster. 1927. Privately printed. (In Canada). 47 pages. Les Opérations en Macédoine. L'épopée de Doiran, 1915–1918. Par le Lieutenant-Colonel Nédeff, d'Etat-Major Général de l'armée Bulgare. Traduit par le Commandant Goetzmann. (Sofia. Imprimerie Armeyski Voeno-Isdatelski Fond). 8 fr. suisses. The Connaught Rangers, 2nd Battalion (formerly 94th Foot). By Lieut.-Colonel H. F. N. Jourdain, C.M.G., and Edward Fraser. Vol. II. (London: Royal United Service Institution). 1926. 3 vols. 3 Guineas. The History of the 2/6th Lancashire Fusiliers: The Story of a 2nd Line Territorial Battalion, 1914–1919. By Captain C. H. Potter, M. C., and Captain A. S. C. Fothergill. (The Observer General Printing Works, Rochdale). 1927. The History of the Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Alber's), 1914–1919. By Edward Wyrall; with a Foreword by H.R.H. The Duke of York, K.G. (London: Methuen & Co., Ltd.). 1927. 21s. The Royal Montreal Regiment, 14th Battalion, C.E.F., 1914–1925. Edited and Compiled by R.C. Featherstonhaugh. (Montreal: The Gazette Printing Co., Ltd.). 1927. A Short History at “The Cinque Ports” 5th (Cinque Ports) Battalion, The Royal Sussex Regiment. By E. A. C. Fazan. (Published by R. H. Wadeson, The Alpha Press, Wadhurst). 1s. 6d. A Famous Indian Regiment, The Kali Panchwin, 2/5th (formerly the 105th) Mahratta Light Infantry, 1768–1923. By the late Colonel Sir Reginald Hennell, C.V.O., D.S.O., O.B.E. (London: John Murrary). 1927. 12s.

Total Solar Eclipse, 1927 June 29: Report of the Observations made at Stonyhurst College Observatory

Total Solar Eclipse, 1927 June 29: Report of the Observations made at Stonyhurst College Observatory

The spectrum of Cassiopeiae, H to B. Stonyhurst College Observatory. (Plate 16.)

The spectrum of Cassiopeiae, H to B. Stonyhurst College Observatory. (Plate 16.)

The Influence of Science

The ingenious letter under the above heading, on page 180 of NATURE of August 5, by that industrious astronomer of Stonyhurst College, Father Cortie, S.J., seems to require some brief notice because of the singular character of the statements made in it. We are asked to believe that Copernicus's “heliocentric doctrine was freely taught, even in ecclesiastical colleges, until Galileo interested himself as a champion of the system”; in spite of the admission that after this “truculent and hot-headed controversialist” had endeavoured to get the Church to realise that the doctrine was not really antagonistic to Scripture when reasonably interpreted, and after the offended Pope had brought the matter before the Holy Office, that authority determined that “the Copernican system was false and absurd philosophically.” And we are also asked to believe that the outcome was merely that Galileo had as a penance “to recite certain prayers, and was sent to a beautiful villa at Arcetri”; the implication being that there was really no punishment, and that there was no call for anxiety or distress on the part of either him or his daughter throughout the proceedings.

Father Walter Sidgreaves. S. J.

FATHER WALTER SIDGREAVES, S.J.,the director of the Stonyhurst College Observatory, died, after a lingering last illness at Stonyhurst on June 12 in his eighty-second year. He had been ailing and failing in strength for the last six months, but with indomitable courage he carried on the routine work of the observatory to within a month of his death.

Report on the total solar eclipse of 1911, April 28. (Observed the expedition of the joint permanent eclipse committee to Vavau, Tonga Islands, South Pacific.)

1. General Arrangements . The expedition to observe the total solar eclipse of 1911, April 28, was organised by the Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee, the expenses being defrayed by the Government Grant Fund. Of the few islands in the South Pacific crossed by the track of the moon’s shadow during totality, Vavau, one of the northernmost group of the Tonga or Friendly Islands, was the most suitable for observing the eclipse, the duration of totality being computed at 217 seconds, and there being a reasonable prospect of good weather. The programme of observations consisted of photographs of the corona on a large and relatively small scale for coronal detail and extension of the streamers, and photographs of the spectrum of the corona and of the lower chromosphere. For these purposes the expedition was furnished with a 4-inch photographic lens of 20 feet focal length, kindly lent by the Council of the Royal Irish Academy, and the 4-inch Dallmeyer “Abney” lens of 34 inches focal length. For the spectrum of the corona Prof. Newall kindly lent the quartz spectroscope of four prisms, presented to the Cambridge Observatory by Major Hills, in order further to investigate the ultra-violet spectrum. The fourth instrument was made up of a large 7-inch prism of 40° in combination with a 6-inch Dallmeyer portrait lens of 30 inches focal length, This objective prismatic camera gave a short but very bright spectrum, 4⋅5 cm. from H α to H ζ . The intention was to investigate the red end of the coronal spectrum on dyed plates, and incidentally to photograph the flash spectrum. The members of the expedition were Father Cortie and Mr. W. McKeon, from the Stonyhurst College Observatory, and Father E. Pigot, Director of the Observatory of St. Ignatius’ College, Rivervievv, Sydney, N. S. W., who also acted as agent for the expedition in Sydney, in the preparation of huts to cover the instruments, and in the gathering of materials for building the piers for the foundations. The Admiralty gave instructions that H. M. S. “Encounter” should convey the observers and the instruments from Sydney to Vavau and back, and that every assistance should be rendered to the expedition in the erection of the instruments and in the observations. The expedition is greatly indebted to Captain Colomb, and to the officers and men of the “Encounter,” for their enthusiastic co-operation in the work of the expedition.