Chapter XIX: Act 1871: , the jurisdiction, duties and command exercised by the lord (1)

lieutenant were revested in the crown, but the power of recommending
for first appointments was reserved to the lord lieutenant. By the
Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907, the lord lieutenant of a
county was constituted president of the county association. The office
of lord lieutenant is honorary, and is held during the royal pleasure,
but virtually for life. Appointment to the office is by letters patent
under the great seal. Usually, though not necessarily, the person
appointed lord lieutenant is also appointed custos rotulorum (q.v.).
Appointments to the county bench of magistrates are usually made on
the recommendation of the lord lieutenant (see JUSTICE OF THE PEACE).

A deputy lieutenant (denoted frequently by the addition of the letters
D.L. after a person's name) is a deputy of a lord lieutenant of a
county. His appointment and qualifications previous to 1908 were
regulated by the Militia Act 1882. By s. 30 of that act the lieutenant
of each county was required from time to time to appoint such properly
qualified persons as he thought fit, living within the county, to be
deputy lieutenants. At least twenty had to be appointed for each
county, if there were so many qualified; if less than that number were
qualified, then all the duly qualified persons in the county were to
be appointed. The appointments were subject to the sovereign's
approval, and a return of all appointments to, and removals from, the
office had to be laid before parliament annually. To qualify for the
appointment of deputy lieutenant a person had to be (a) a peer of the
realm, or the heir-apparent of such a peer, having a place of
residence within the county; or (b) have in possession an estate in
land in the United Kingdom of the yearly value of not less than £200;
or (c) be the heir-apparent of such a person; or (d) have a clear
yearly income from personalty within the United Kingdom of not less
than £200 (s. 33). If the lieutenant were absent from the United
Kingdom, or through illness or other cause were unable to act, the
sovereign might authorize any three deputy lieutenants to act as
lieutenant (s. 31), or might appoint a deputy lieutenant to act as
vice-lieutenant. Otherwise, the duties of the office were practically
nominal, except that a deputy lieutenant might attest militia recruits
and administer the oath of allegiance to them. The reorganization in
1907 of the forces of the British crown, and the formation of county
associations to administer the territorial army, placed increased
duties on deputy lieutenants, and it was publicly announced that the
king's approval of appointments to that position would only be given
in the case of gentlemen who had served for ten years in some force of
the crown, or had rendered eminent service in connexion with a county
association.

The lord lieutenant of Ireland is the head of the executive in that
country. He represents his sovereign and maintains the formalities of
government, the business of government being entrusted to the
department of his chief secretary, who represents the Irish
government in the House of Commons, and may have a seat in the
cabinet. The chief secretary occupies an important position, and in
every cabinet either the lord lieutenant or he has a seat.

Lieutenant-governor is the title of the governor of an Indian
province, in direct subordination to the governor-general in council.
The lieutenant-governor comes midway in dignity between the governors
of Madras and Bombay, who are appointed from England, and the chief
commissioners of smaller provinces. In the Dominion of Canada the
governors of provinces also have the title of lieutenant-governor. The
representatives of the sovereign in the Isle of Man and the Channel
Islands are likewise styled lieutenant-governors.

LIFE, the popular name for the activity peculiar to protoplasm (q.v.). This conception has been extended by analogy to phenomena different in kind, such as the activities of masses of water or of air, or of machinery, or by another analogy, to the duration of a composite structure, and by imagination to real or supposed phenomena such as the manifestations of incorporeal entities. From the point of view of exact science life is associated with matter, is displayed only by living bodies, by all living bodies, and is what distinguishes living bodies from bodies that are not alive. Herbert Spencer's formula that life is "the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations" was the result of a profound and subtle analysis, but omits the fundamental consideration that we know life only as a quality of and in association with living matter.

In developing our conception we must discard from consideration the complexities that arise from the organization of the higher living bodies, the differences between one living animal and another, or between plant and animal. Such differentiations and integrations of living bodies are the subject-matter of discussions on evolution; some will see in the play of circumambient media, natural or supernatural, on the simplest forms of living matter, sufficient explanation of the development of such matter into the highest forms of living organisms; others will regard the potency of such living matter so to develop as a mysterious and peculiar quality that must be added to the conception of life. Choice amongst these alternatives need not complicate investigation of the nature of life. The explanation that serves for the evolution of living matter, the vehicle of life, will serve for the evolution of life. What we have to deal with here is life in its simplest form.

The definition of life must really be a description of the essential characters of life, and we must set out with an investigation of the characters of living substance with the special object of detecting the differences between organisms and unorganized matter, and the differences between dead and living organized matter.

Living substance (see PROTOPLASM), as it now exists in all animals and plants, is particulate, consisting of elementary organisms living independently, or grouped in communities, the communities forming the bodies of the higher animals and plants. These small particles or larger communities are subject to accidents, internal or external, which destroy them, immediately or slowly, and thus life ceases; or they may wear out, or become clogged by the products of their own activity. There is no reason to regard the mortality of protoplasm and the consequent limited duration of life as more than the necessary consequence of particulate character of living matter (see LONGEVITY).

Protoplasm, the living material, contains only a few elements, all of which are extremely common and none of which is peculiar to it. These elements, however, form compounds characteristic of living substance and for the most part peculiar to it. Proteid, which consists of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur, is present in all protoplasm, is the most complex of all organic bodies, and, so far, is known only from organic bodies. A multitude of minor and simpler organic compounds, of which carbohydrates and fats are the best known, occur in different protoplasm in varying forms and proportions, and are much less isolated from the inorganic world. They may be stages in the elaboration or disintegration of protoplasm, and although they were at one time believed to occur only as products of living matter, are gradually being conquered by the synthetic chemist. Finally, protoplasm contains various inorganic substances, such as salts and water, the latter giving it its varying degrees of liquid consistency.

We attain, therefore, our first generalized description of life as the property or peculiar quality of a substance composed of none but the more common elements, but of these elements grouped in various ways to form compounds ranging from proteid, the most complex of known substances to the simplest salts. The living substance, moreover, has its mixture of elaborate and simple compounds associated in a fashion that is peculiar. The older writers have spoken of protoplasm or the cell as being in a sense "manufactured articles"; in the more modern view such a conception is replaced by the statement that protoplasm and the cell have behind them a long historical architecture. Both ideas, or both modes of expressing what is fundamentally the same idea, have this in common, that life is not a sum of the qualities of the chemical elements contained in protoplasm, but a function first of the peculiar architecture of the mixture, and then of the high complexity of the compounds contained in the mixture. The qualities of water are no sum of the qualities of oxygen and hydrogen, and still less can we expect to explain the qualities of life without regard to the immense complexity of the living substance.

We must now examine in more detail the differences which exist or have been alleged to exist between living organisms and inorganic bodies. There is no essential difference in structure. Confusion has arisen in regard to this point from attempts to compare organized bodies with crystals, the comparison having been suggested by the view that as crystals present the highest type of inorganic structure, it was reasonable to compare them with organic matter. Differences between crystals and organized bodies have no bearing on the problem of life, for organic substance must be compared with a liquid rather than with a crystal, and differs in structure no more from inorganic liquids than these do amongst themselves, and less than they differ from crystals. Living matter is a mixture of substances chiefly dissolved in water; the comparison with the crystals has led to a supposed distinction in the mode of growth, crystals growing by the superficial apposition of new particles and living substance by intussusception. But inorganic liquids also grow in the latter mode, as when a soluble substance is added to them.

The phenomena of movement do not supply any absolute distinction. Although these are the most obvious characters of life, they cannot be detected in quiescent seeds, which we know to be alive, and they are displayed in a fashion very like life by inorganic foams brought in contact with liquids of different composition. Irritability, again, although a notable quality of living substance, is not peculiar to it, for many inorganic substances respond to external stimulation by definite changes. Instability, again, which lies at the root of Spencer's definition "continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations" is displayed by living matter in very varying degrees from the apparent absolute quiescence of frozen seeds to the activity of the central nervous system, whilst there is a similar range amongst inorganic substances.

The phenomena of reproduction present no fundamental distinction. Most living bodies, it is true, are capable of reproduction, but there are many without this capacity, whilst, on the other hand, it would be difficult to draw an effective distinction between that reproduction of simple organisms which consists of a sub-division of their substance with consequent resumption of symmetry by the separate pieces, and the breaking up of a drop of mercury into a number of droplets.

Consideration of the mode of origin reveals a more real if not an absolute distinction. All living substance so far as is known at present (see BIOGENESIS) arises only from already existing living substance. It is to be noticed, however, that green plants have the power of building up living substance from inorganic material, and there is a certain analogy between the building up of new living material only in association with pre-existing living material, and the greater readiness with which certain inorganic reactions take place if there already be present some trace of the result of the reaction.

The real distinction between living matter and inorganic matter is chemical. Living substance always contains proteid, and although we know that proteid contains only common inorganic elements, we know neither how these are combined to form proteid, nor any way in which proteid can be brought into existence except in the presence of previously existing proteid. The central position of the problem of life lies in the chemistry of proteid, and until that has been fully explored, we are unable to say that there is any problem of life behind the problem of proteid.

Comparison of living and lifeless organic matter presents the initial difficulty that we cannot draw an exact line between a living and a dead organism. The higher "warm-blooded" creatures appear to present the simplest case and in their life-history there seems to be a point at which we can say "that which was alive is now dead." We judge from some major arrest of activity, as when the heart ceases to beat. Long after this, however, various tissues remain alive and active, and the event to which we give the name of death is no more than a superficially visible stage in a series of changes. In less highly integrated organisms, such as "cold-blooded" vertebrates, the point of death is less conspicuous, and when we carry our observations further down the scale of animal life, there ceases to be any salient phase in the slow transition from life to death.

The distinction between life and death is made more difficult by a consideration of cases of so-called "arrested vitality." If credit can be given to the stories of Indian fakirs, it appears that human beings can pass voluntarily into a state of suspended animation that may last for weeks. The state of involuntary trance, sometimes mistaken for death, is a similar occurrence. A. Leeuwenhoek, in 1719, made the remarkable discovery, since abundantly confirmed, that many animalculae, notably tardigrades and rotifers, may be completely desiccated and remain in that condition for long periods without losing the power of awaking to active life when moistened with water. W. Preyer has more recently investigated the matter and has given it the name "anabiosis." Later observers have found similar occurrences in the cases of small nematodes, rotifers and bacteria. The capacity of plant seeds to remain dry and inactive for very long periods is still better known. It has been supposed that in the case of the plant seeds and still more in that of the animals, the condition of anabiosis was merely one in which the metabolism was too faint to be perceptible by ordinary methods of observation, but the elaborate experiments of W. Kochs would seem to show that a complete arrest of vital activity is compatible with viability. The categories, "alive" and "dead," are not sufficiently distinct for us to add to our conception of life by comparing them. A living organism usually displays active metabolism of proteid, but the metabolism may slow down, actually cease and yet reawaken; a dead organism is one in which the metabolism has ceased and does not reawaken.

_Origin of Life._--It is plain that we cannot discuss adequately the origin of life or the possibility of the artificial construction of living matter (see ABIOGENESIS and BIOGENESIS) until the chemistry of protoplasm and specially of proteid is more advanced. The investigations of O. Bütschli have shown how a model of protoplasm can be manufactured. Very finely triturated soluble particles are rubbed into a smooth paste with an oil of the requisite consistency. A fragment of such a paste brought into a liquid in which the solid particles are soluble, slowly expands into a honeycomb like foam, the walls of the minute vesicles being films of oil, and the contents being the soluble particles dissolved in droplets of the circumambient liquid. Such a model, properly constructed, that is to say, with the vesicles of the foam microscopic in size, is a marvellous imitation of the appearance of protoplasm, being distinguishable from it only by a greater symmetry. The nicely balanced conditions of solution produce a state of unstable equilibrium, with the result that internal streaming movements and changes of shape and changes of position in the model simulate closely the corresponding manifestations in real protoplasm. The model has no power of recuperation; in a comparatively short time equilibrium is restored and the resemblance with protoplasm disappears. But it suggests a method by which, when the chemistry of protoplasm and proteid is better known, the proper substances which compose protoplasm may be brought together to form a simple kind of protoplasm.

It has been suggested from time to time that conditions very unlike those now existing were necessary for the first appearance of life, and must be repeated if living matter is to be constructed artificially. No support for such a view can be derived from observations of the existing conditions of life. The chemical elements involved are abundant; the physical conditions of temperature pressure and so forth at which living matter is most active, and within the limits of which it is confined, are familiar and almost constant in the world around us. On the other hand, it may be that the initial conditions for the synthesis of proteid are different from those under which proteid and living matter display their activities. E. Pflüger has argued that the analogies between living proteid and the compounds of cyanogen are so numerous that they suggest cyanogen as the starting-point of protoplasm. Cyanogen and its compounds, so far as we know, arise only in a state of incandescent heat. Pflüger suggests that such compounds arose when the surface of the earth was incandescent, and that in the long process of cooling, compounds of cyanogen and hydrocarbons passed into living protoplasm by such processes of transformation and polymerization as are familiar in the chemical groups in question, and by the acquisition of water and oxygen. His theory is in consonance with the interpretation of the structure of protoplasm as having behind it a long historical architecture and leads to the obvious conclusion that if protoplasm be constructed artificially it will be by a series of stages and that the product will be simpler than any of the existing animals or plants.

Until greater knowledge of protoplasm and particularly of proteid has been acquired, there is no scientific room for the suggestion that there is a mysterious factor differentiating living matter from other matter and life from other activities. We have to scale the walls, open the windows, and explore the castle before crying out that it is so marvellous that it must contain ghosts.

As may be supposed, theories of the origin of life apart from doctrines of special creation or of a primitive and slow spontaneous generation are mere fantastic speculations. The most striking of these suggests an extra-terrestrial origin. H. E. Richter appears to have been the first to propound the idea that life came to this planet as cosmic dust or in meteorites thrown off from stars and planets. Towards the end of the 19th century Lord Kelvin (then Sir W. Thomson) and H. von Helmholtz independently raised and discussed the possibility of such an origin of terrestrial life, laying stress on the presence of hydrocarbons in meteoric stones and on the indications of their presence revealed by the spectra of the tails of comets. W. Preyer has criticized such views, grouping them under the phrase "theory of cosmozoa," and has suggested that living matter preceded inorganic matter. Preyer's view, however, enlarges the conception of life until it can be applied to the phenomena of incandescent gases and has no relation to ideas of life derived from observation of the living matter we know.

REFERENCES.--O. Bütschli, _Investigations on Microscopic Foams and
Protoplasm_ (Eng. trans. by E. A. Minchin, 1894), with a useful list
of references; H. von Helmholtz, _Vorträge und Reden_, ii. (1884); W.
Kochs, _Allgemeine Naturkunde_, x. 673 (1890); A. Leeuwenhoek,
_Epistolae ad Societatem regiam Anglicam_ (1719); E. Pflüger, "Über
einige Gesetze des Eiweissstoffwechsels," in _Archiv. Ges. Physiol._
liv. 333 (1893); W. Preyer, _Die Hypothesen über den Ursprung des
Lebens_ (1880); H. E. Richter, _Zur Darwinischen Lehre_ (1865);
Herbert Spencer, _Principles of Biology_; Max Verworm, _General
Physiology_ (English trans. by F. S. Lee, 1899), with a very full
literature. (P. C. M.)

LIFE-BOAT, and LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. The article on DROWNING AND LIFE-SAVING (q.v.) deals generally with the means of saving life at sea, but under this heading it is convenient to include the appliances connected specially with the life-boat service. The ordinary open boat is unsuited for life-saving in a stormy sea, and numerous contrivances, in regard to which the lead came from England, have been made for securing the best type of life-boat.

The first life-boat was conceived and designed by Lionel Lukin, a London coach-builder, in 1785. Encouraged by the prince of Wales (George IV.), Lukin fitted up a Norway yawl as a life-boat, took out a patent for it, and wrote a pamphlet descriptive of his "Insubmergible Boat." Buoyancy he obtained by means of a projecting gunwale of cork and air-chambers inside--one of these being at the bow, another at the stern. Stability he secured by a false iron keel. The self-righting and self-emptying principles he seems not to have thought of; at all events he did not compass them. Despite the patronage of the prince, Lukin went to his grave a neglected and disappointed man. But he was not altogether unsuccessful, for, at the request of the Rev Dr Shairp, Lukin fitted up a coble as an "unimmergible" life-boat, which was launched at Bamborough, saved several lives the first year and afterwards saved many lives and much property.

Public apathy in regard to shipwreck was temporally swept away by the wreck of the "Adventure" of Newcastle in 1789. This vessel was stranded only 300 yds. from the shore, and her crew dropped, one by one, into the raging breakers in presence of thousands of spectators, none of whom dared to put off in an ordinary boat to the rescue. An excited meeting among the people of South Shields followed; a committee was formed, and premiums were offered for the best models of a life-boat. This called forth many plans, of which those of William Wouldhave, a painter, and Henry Greathead, a boatbuilder, of South Shields, were selected. The committee awarded the prize to the latter, and, adopting the good points of both models, gave the order for the construction of their boat to Greathead. This boat was rendered buoyant by nearly 7 cwts. of cork, and had very raking stem and stern-posts, with great curvature of keel. It did good service, and Greathead was well rewarded; nevertheless no other life-boat was launched till 1798, when the duke of Northumberland ordered Greathead to build him a life-boat which he endowed. This boat also did good service, and its owner ordered another in 1800 for Oporto. In the same year Mr Cathcart Dempster ordered one for St Andrews, where, two years later, it saved twelve lives. Thus the value of life-boats began to be recognized, and before the end of 1803 Greathead had built thirty-one boats--eighteen for England, five for Scotland and eight for foreign lands. Nevertheless, public interest in life-boats was not thoroughly aroused till 1823.

In that year Sir William Hillary, Bart., stood forth to champion the life-boat cause. Sir William dwelt in the Isle of Man, and had assisted with his own hand in the saving of three hundred and five lives. In conjunction with two members of parliament--Mr Thomas Wilson and Mr George Hibbert--Hillary founded the "Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck." This, perhaps the grandest of England's charitable societies, and now named the "Royal National Life-boat Institution," was founded on the 4th of March 1824. The king patronized it; the archbishop of Canterbury presided at its birth; the most eloquent men in the land--among them Wilberforce--pleaded the cause; nevertheless, the institution began its career with a sum of only £9826. In the first year twelve new life-boats were built and placed at different stations, besides which thirty-nine life-boats had been stationed on the British shores by benevolent individuals and by independent associations over which the institution exercised no control though it often assisted them. In its early years the institution placed the mortar apparatus of Captain Manby at many stations, and provided for the wants of sailors and others saved from shipwreck,--a duty subsequently discharged by the "Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society." At the date of the institution's second report it had contributed to the saving of three hundred and forty-two lives, either by its own life-saving apparatus or by other means for which it had granted rewards. With fluctuating success, both as regards means and results, the institution continued its good work--saving many lives, and occasionally losing a few brave men in its tremendous battles with the sea. Since the adoption of the self-righting boats, loss of life in the service has been comparatively small and infrequent.

Towards the middle of the 19th century the life-boat cause appeared to lose interest with the British public, though the life-saving work was prosecuted with unremitting zeal, but the increasing loss of life by shipwreck, and a few unusually severe disasters to life-boats, brought about the reorganization of the society in 1850. The Prince Consort became vice-patron of the institution in conjunction with the king of the Belgians, and Queen Victoria, who had been its patron since her accession, became an annual contributor to its funds. In 1851 the duke of Northumberland became president, and from that time forward a tide of prosperity set in, unprecedented in the history of benevolent institutions, both in regard to the great work accomplished and the pecuniary aid received. In 1850 its committee undertook the immediate superintendence of all the life-boat work on the coasts, with the aid of local committees. Periodical inspections, quarterly exercise of crews, fixed rates of payments to coxswains and men, and quarterly reports, were instituted, at the time when the self-righting self-emptying boat came into being. This boat was the result of a hundred-guinea prize, offered by the president, for the best model of a life-boat, with another hundred to defray the cost of a boat built on the model chosen. In reply to the offer no fewer than two hundred and eighty models were sent in, not only from all parts of the United Kingdom, but from France, Germany, Holland and the United States of America. The prize was gained by Mr James Beeching of Great Yarmouth, whose model, slightly modified by Mr James Peake, one of the committee of inspection, was still further improved as time and experience suggested (see below).

The necessity of maintaining a thoroughly efficient life-boat service is now generally recognized by the people not only of Great Britain, but also of those other countries on the European Continent and America which have a seaboard, and of the British colonies, and numerous life-boat services have been founded more or less on the lines of the Royal National Life-boat Institution. The British Institution was again reorganized in 1883; it has since greatly developed both in its life-saving efficiency and financially, and has been spoken of in the highest terms as regards its management by successive governments--a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1897 reporting to the House that the thanks of the whole community were due to the Institution for its energy and good management. On the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 she was succeeded as patron of the Institution by Edward VII., who as prince of Wales had been its president for several years. At the close of 1908 the Institution's fleet consisted of 280 life-boats, and the total number of lives for the saving of which the committee of management had granted rewards since the establishment of the Institution in 1824 was 47,983. At this time there were only seventeen life-boats on the coast of the United Kingdom which did not belong to the Institution. In 1882 the total amount of money received by the Institution from all sources was £57,797, whereas in 1901 the total amount received had increased to £107,293. In 1908 the receipts were £115,303, the expenditure £90,335.

In 1882 the Institution undertook, with the view of diminishing the
loss of life among the coast fishermen, to provide the masters and
owners of fishing-vessels with trustworthy aneroid barometers, at
about a third of the retail price, and in 1883 the privilege was
extended to the masters and owners of coasters under 100 tons burden.
At the end of 1901 as many as 4417 of these valuable instruments had
been supplied. In 1889 the committee of management secured the passing
of the Removal of Wrecks Act 1877 Amendment Act, which provides for
the removal of wrecks in non-navigable waters which might prove
dangerous to life-boat crews and others. Under its provisions
numerous highly dangerous wrecks have been removed.

In 1893 the chairman of the Institution moved a resolution in the
House of Commons that, in order to decrease the serious loss of life
from shipwreck on the coast, the British Government should provide
either telephonic or telegraphic communication between all the
coast-guard stations and signal stations on the coast of the United
Kingdom; and that where there are no coast-guard stations the post
offices nearest to the life-boat stations should be electrically
connected, the object being to give the earliest possible information
to the life-boat authorities at all times, by day and night, when the
life-boats are required for service; and further, that a Royal
Commission should be appointed to consider the desirability of
electrically connecting the rock lighthouses, light-ships, &c., with
the shore. The resolution was agreed to without a division, and its
intention has been practically carried out, the results obtained
having proved most valuable in the saving of life.

On the 1st of January 1898 a pension and gratuity scheme was
introduced by the committee of management, under which life-boat
coxswains, bowmen and signalmen of long and meritorious service,
retiring on account of old age, accident, ill-health or abolition of
office, receive special allowances as a reward for their good
services. While these payments act as an incentive to the men to
discharge their duties satisfactorily, they at the same time assist
the committee of management in their effort to obtain the best men for
the work. For many years the Institution has given compensation to any
who may have received injury while employed in the service, besides
granting liberal help to the widows and dependent relatives of any in
the service who lose their own lives when endeavouring to rescue
others.

A very marked advance in improvement in design and suitability for service has been made in the life-boat since the reorganization of the Institution in 1883, but principally since 1887, when, as the result of an accident in December 1886 to two self-righting life-boats in Lancashire, twenty-seven out of twenty-nine of the men who manned them were drowned. At this time a permanent technical sub-committee was appointed by the Institution, whose object was, with the assistance of an eminent consulting naval architect--a new post created--and the Institution's official experts, to give its careful attention to the designing of improvements in the life-boat and its equipment, and to the scientific consideration of any inventions or proposals submitted by the public, with a view to adopting them if of practical utility. Whereas in 1881 the self-righting life-boat of that time was looked upon as the Institution's special life-boat, and there were very few life-boats in the Institution's fleet not of that type, at the close of 1901 the life-boats of the Institution included 60 non-self-righting boats of various types, known by the following designations: Steam life-boats 4, Cromer 3, Lamb and White 1, Liverpool 14, Norfolk and Suffolk 19, tubular 1, Watson 18. In 1901 a steam-tug was placed at Padstow for use solely in conjunction with the life-boats on the north coast of Cornwall. The self-righting life-boat of 1901 was a very different boat from that of 1881. The Institution's present policy is to allow the men who man the life-boats, after having seen and tried by deputation the various types, to select that in which they have the most confidence.

The present life-boat of the self-righting type (fig. 2) differs materially from its predecessor, the stability being increased and the righting power greatly improved. The test of efficiency in this last quality was formerly considered sufficient if the boat would quickly right herself in smooth water without her crew and gear, but every self-righting life-boat now built by the Institution will right with her full crew and gear on board, with her sails set and the anchor down. Most of the larger self-righting boats are furnished with "centre-boards" or "drop-keels" of varying size and weight, which can be used at pleasure, and materially add to their weather qualities. The drop-keel was for the first time placed in a life-boat in 1885.

A, Deck.
B, Relieving valves for automatic discharge of water off deck.
C, Side air-cases above deck.
D, End air compartments, usually called "end-boxes," an important
factor in self-righting.
E, Wale, or fender.
F, Iron keel ballast, important in general stability and
self-righting.
G, Water-ballast tanks.
H, Drop-keel.]

A, Cockpit.
a, Deck.
b, Propeller hatch.
c, Relief valves.
B, Engine-room.
C, Boiler-room.
D, Water-tight compartments.
E, Coal-bunkers.
F, Capstan.
G, Hatches to engine and boiler rooms.
H, Cable reel.
I, Anchor davit.]

Steam was first introduced into a life-boat in 1890, when the Institution, after very full inquiry and consideration, stationed on the coast a steel life-boat, 50 ft. long and 12 ft. beam, and a depth of 3 ft. 6 in., propelled by a turbine wheel driven by engines developing 170 horse-power. It had been previously held by all competent judges that a mechanically-propelled life-boat, suitable for service in heavy weather, was a problem surrounded by so many and great difficulties that even the most sanguine experts dared not hope for an early solution of it. This type of boat (fig. 3) has proved very useful. It is, however, fully recognized that boats of this description can necessarily be used at only a very limited number of stations, and where there is a harbour which never dries out. The highest speed attained by the first hydraulic steam life-boat was rather more than 9 knots, and that secured in the latest 9½ knots. In 1909 the fleet of the Institution included 4 steam life-boats and 8 motor life-boats. The experiments with motor life-boats in previous years had proved successful.

The other types of pulling and sailing life-boats are all non-self-righting, and are specially suitable for the requirements of the different parts of the coast on which they are placed. Their various qualities will be understood by a glance at the illustrations (figs. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8).

A, Deck.
B, Relieving valves for automatic discharge of water off deck.
C, Side air-cases above deck.
E, Wale, or fender.
G, Water-ballast tanks.]

The Institution continues to build life-boats of different sizes according to the requirements of the various points of the coast at which they are placed, but of late years the tendency has been generally to increase the dimensions of the boats. This change of policy is mainly due to the fact that the small coasters and fishing-boats have in great measure disappeared, their places being taken by steamers and steam trawlers. The cost of the building and equipping of pulling and sailing life-boats has materially increased, more especially since 1898, the increase being mainly due to improvements and the seriously augmented charges for materials and labour. In 1881 the average cost of a fully-equipped life-boat and carriage was £650, whereas at the end of 1901 it amounted to £1000, the average annual cost of maintaining a station having risen to about £125.

The _transporting-carriage_ continues to be a most important part of the equipment of life-boats, generally of the self-righting type, and is indispensable where it is necessary to launch the boats at any point not in the immediate vicinity of the boat-house. It is not, however, usual to supply carriages to boats of larger dimensions than 37 ft. in length by 9 ft. beam, those in excess as regards length and beam being either launched by means of special slipways or kept afloat. The transporting-carriage of to-day has been rendered particularly useful at places where the beach is soft, sandy or shingly, by the introduction in 1888 of Tipping's sand-plates. They are composed of an endless plateway or jointed wheel tyre fitted to the main wheels of the carriage, thereby enabling the boat to be transferred with rapidity and with greatly decreased labour over beach and soft sand. Further efficiency in launching has also been attained at many stations by the introduction in 1890 of pushing-poles, attached to the transporting-carriages, and of horse launching-poles, first used in 1892. Fig. 9 gives a view of the modern transporting-carriage fitted with Tipping's sand- or wheel-plates.

The _life-belt_ has since 1898 been considerably improved, being now less cumbersome than formerly, and more comfortable. The feature of the principal improvement is the reduction in length of the corks under the arms of the wearer and the rounding-off of the upper portions, the result being that considerably more freedom is provided for the arms. The maximum extra buoyancy has thereby been reduced from 25 lb. to 22 lb., which is more than sufficient to support a man heavily clothed with his head and shoulders above the water, or to enable him to support another person besides himself. Numerous life-belts of very varied descriptions, and made of all sorts of materials, have been patented, but it is generally agreed that for life-boat work the cork life-belt of the Institution has not yet been equalled.

_Life-saving rafts, seats for ships' decks, dresses, buoys, belts, &c.,_ have been produced in all shapes and sizes, but apparently nothing indispensable has as yet been brought out. Those interested in life-saving appliances were hopeful that the Paris Exhibition of 1900 would have produced some life-saving invention which might prove a benefit to the civilized world, but so lacking in real merit were the life-saving exhibits that the jury of experts were unable to award to any of the 435 competitors the Andrew Pollok prize of £4000 for the best method or device for saving life from shipwreck.

The _rocket apparatus_, which in the United Kingdom is under the management of the coast-guard, renders excellent service in life-saving. This, next to the life-boat, is the most important and successful means by which shipwrecked persons are rescued on the British shores. Many vessels are cast every year on the rocky parts of the coasts, under cliffs, where no life-boat could be of service. In such places the rocket alone is available.

The rocket apparatus consists of five principal parts, viz. the
rocket, the rocket-line, the whip, the hawser and the sling life-buoy.
The mode of working it is as follows. A rocket, having a light line
attached to it, is fired over the wreck. By means of this line the
wrecked crew haul out the whip, which is a double or endless line,
rove through a block with a tail attached to it. The tail-block,
having been detached from the rocket-line, is fastened to a mast, or
other portion of the wreck, high above the water. By means of the whip
the rescuers haul off the hawser, to which is hung the travelling or
sling life-buoy. When one end of the hawser has been made fast to the
mast, about 18 in. _above_ the whip, and its other end to tackle
fixed to an anchor on shore, the life-buoy is run out by the rescuers,
and the shipwrecked persons, getting into it one at a time, are hauled
ashore. Sometimes, in cases of urgency, the life-buoy is worked by
means of the whip alone, without the hawser. Captain G. W. Manby,
F.R.S., in 1807 invented, or at least introduced, the mortar
apparatus, on which the system of the rocket apparatus, which
superseded it in England, is founded. Previously, however, in 1791,
the idea of throwing a rope from a wreck to the shore by means of a
shell from a mortar had occurred to Serjeant Bell of the Royal
Artillery, and about the same time, to a Frenchman named La Fère, both
of whom made successful experiments with their apparatus. In the same
year (1807) a rocket was proposed by Mr Trengrouse of Helston in
Cornwall, also a hand and lead line as means of communicating with
vessels in distress. The _heaving-cane_ was a fruit of the latter
suggestion. In 1814 forty-five mortar stations were established, and
Manby received £2000, in addition to previous grants, in
acknowledgment of the good service rendered by his invention. Mr John
Dennett of Newport, Isle of Wight, introduced the rocket, which was
afterwards extensively used. In 1826 four places in the Isle of Wight
were supplied with Dennett's rockets, but it was not till after
government had taken the apparatus under its own control, in 1855,
that the rocket invented by Colonel Boxer was adopted. Its peculiar
characteristic lies in the combination of two rockets in one case, one
being a continuation of the other, so that, after the first
compartment has carried the machine to its full elevation, the second
gives it an additional impetus whereby a great increase of range is
obtained. (R. M. B.; C. Di.)

UNITED STATES.--In the extent of coast line covered, magnitude of operations and the extraordinary success which has crowned its efforts, the life-saving service of the United States is not surpassed by any other institution of its kind in the world. Notwithstanding the exposed and dangerous nature of the coasts flanking and stretching between the approaches to the principal seaports, and the immense amount of shipping concentrating upon them, the loss of life among a total of 121,459 persons imperilled by marine casualty within the scope of the operations of the service from its organization in 1871 to the 30th of June 1907, was less than 1%, and even this small proportion is made up largely of persons washed overboard immediately upon the striking of vessels and before any assistance could reach them, or lost in attempts to land in their own boats, and people thrown into the sea by the capsizing of small craft. In the scheme of the service, next in importance to the saving of life is the saving of property from marine disaster, for which no salvage or reward is allowed. During the period named vessels and cargoes to the value of nearly two hundred million dollars were saved, while only about a quarter as much was lost.

The first government life-saving stations were plain boat-houses erected on the coast of New Jersey in 1848, each equipped with a fisherman's surf-boat and a mortar and life-car with accessories. Prior to this time, as early as 1789, a benevolent organization known as the Massachusetts Humane Society had erected rude huts along the coast of that state, followed by a station at Cohasset in 1807 equipped with a boat for use by volunteer crews. Others were subsequently added. Between 1849 and 1870 this society secured appropriations from Congress aggregating $40,000. It still maintains sixty-nine stations on the Massachusetts coast. The government service was extended in 1849 to the coast of Long Island, and in 1850 one station was placed on the Rhode Island coast. In 1854 the appointment of keepers for the New Jersey and Long Island stations, and a superintendent for each of these coasts, was authorized by law. Volunteer crews were depended upon until 1870, when Congress authorized crews at each alternate station for the three winter months.

The present system was inaugurated in 1871 by Sumner I. Kimball, who in that year was appointed chief of the Revenue Cutter Service, which had charge of the few existing stations. He recommended an appropriation of $200,000 and authority for the employment of crews for all stations for such periods as were deemed necessary, which were granted. The existing stations were thoroughly overhauled and put in condition for the housing of crews; necessary boats and equipment were furnished; incapable keepers, who had been appointed largely for political reasons, were supplanted by experienced men; additional stations were established; all were manned by capable surfmen; the merit system for appointments and promotions was inaugurated; a beach patrol system was introduced, together with a system of signals; and regulations for the government of the service were promulgated. The result of the transformation was immediate and striking. At the end of the year it was found that not a life had been lost within the domain of the service; and at the end of the second year the record was almost identical, but one life having been lost, although the service had been extended to embrace the dangerous coast of Cape Cod. Legislation was subsequently secured, totally eliminating politics in the choice of officers and men, and making other provisions necessary for the completion of the system. The service continued to grow in extent and importance until, in 1878, it was separated from the Revenue Cutter Service and organized into a separate bureau of the Treasury, its administration being placed in the hands of a general superintendent appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate, his term of office being limited only by the will of the president. Mr Kimball was appointed to the position, which he still held in 1909.

The service embraces thirteen districts, with 280 stations located at
selected points upon the sea and lake coasts. Nine districts on the
Atlantic and Gulf coasts contain 201 stations, including nine houses
of refuge on the Florida coast, each in charge of a keeper only,
without crews; three districts on the Great Lakes contain 61 stations,
including one at the falls of the Ohio river, Louisville, Kentucky;
and one district on the Pacific coast contains 18 stations, including
one at Nome, Alaska.

The general administration of the service is conducted by a general
superintendent; an inspector of life-saving stations and two
superintendents of construction of life-saving stations detailed from
the Revenue Cutter Service; a district superintendent for each
district; and assistant inspectors of stations, also detailed from the
Revenue Cutter Service "to perform such duties in connexion with the
conduct of the service as the general superintendent may require."
There is also an advisory board on life-saving appliances consisting
of experts, to consider devices and inventions submitted by the
general superintendent.

Station crews are composed of a keeper and from six to eight surfmen,
with an additional man during the winter months at most of the
stations on the Atlantic coast. The surfmen are reenlisted from year
to year during good behaviour, subject to a thorough physical
examination. The keepers are also subject to annual physical
examinations after attaining the age of fifty-five. Stations on the
Atlantic and Gulf coasts are manned from August 1st to May 31st. On
the lakes the active season covers the period of navigation, from
about April 1st to early in December. The falls station at Louisville,
and all stations on the Pacific coast, are in commission continuously.
One station, located in Dorchester Bay, an expanse of water within
Boston harbour, where numerous yachts rendezvous and many accidents
occur, which, with the one at Louisville are, believed to be the only
floating life-saving stations in the world, is manned from May 1st to
November 15th. Its equipment includes a steam tug and two gasoline
launches, the latter being harboured in a slip cut into the after-part
of the station and extending from the stern to nearly amidships. The
Louisville stations guard the falls of the Ohio river, where life is
much endangered from accidents to vessels passing over the falls and
small craft which are liable to be drawn into the chutes while
attempting to cross the river. Its equipment includes two river skiffs
which can be instantly launched directly from the ways at one end of
the station. These skiffs are small boats modelled much like
surf-boats, designed to be rowed by one or two men. Other equipments
are provided for the salvage of property. The stations, located as
near as practicable to a launching place, contain as a rule convenient
quarters for the residence of the keeper and crew and a boat and
apparatus room. In some instances the dwelling- and boat-house are
built separately. Each station has a look-out tower for the day watch.

The principal apparatus consists of surf- and life-boats, Lyle gun and
breeches-buoy apparatus and life-car. The Hunt gun and Cunningham
line-carrying rocket are available at selected stations on account of
their greater range, but their use is rarely necessary. The crews are
drilled daily in some portion of rescue work, as practice in
manoeuvring, upsetting and righting boats, with the breeches-buoy, in
the resuscitation of the apparently drowned and in signalling. The
district officers upon their quarterly visits examine the crews orally
and by drill, recording the proficiency of each member, including the
keeper, which record accompanies their report to the general
superintendent. For watch and patrol the day of twenty-four hours is
divided into periods of four or five hours each. Day watches are stood
by one man in the look-out tower or at some other point of vantage,
while two men are assigned to each night watch between sunset and
sunrise. One of the men remains on watch at the station, dividing his
time between the beach look-out and visits to the telephone at
specified intervals to receive messages, the service telephone system
being extended from station to station nearly throughout the service,
with watch telephones at half-way points. The other man patrols the
beach to the end of his beat and returns, when he takes the look-out
and his watchmate patrols in the opposite direction. A like patrol and
watch is maintained in thick or stormy weather in the daytime. Between
adjacent stations a record of the patrol is made by the exchange of
brass checks; elsewhere the patrolman carries a watchman's clock, on
the dial of which he records the time of his arrival at the keypost
which marks the end of his beat. On discovering a vessel standing into
danger the patrolman burns a Coston signal, which emits a brilliant
red flare, to warn the vessel of her danger. The number of vessels
thus warned averages about two hundred in each year, whereby great
losses are averted, the extent of which can never be known. When a
stranded vessel is discovered, the patrolman's Coston signal apprises
the crew that they are seen and assistance is at hand. He then
notifies his station, by telephone if possible. When such notice is
received at the station, the keeper determines the means with which to
attempt a rescue, whether by boat or beach-apparatus. If the
beach-apparatus is chosen, the apparatus cart is hauled to a point
directly opposite the wreck by horses, kept at most of the stations
during the inclement months, or by the members of the crew. The gear
is unloaded, and while being set up--the members of the crew
performing their several allotted parts simultaneously--the keeper
fires a line over the wreck with the Lyle gun, a small bronze cannon
weighing, with its 18 lb. elongated iron projectile to which the line
is attached, slightly more than 200 lb., and having an extreme range
of about 700 yds., though seldom available at wrecks for more than 400
yds. This gun was the invention of Lieutenant (afterwards Colonel)
David A. Lyle, U.S. Army. Shot lines are of three sizes, {4/32},
{7/32} and {9/32} of an inch diameter, designated respectively Nos. 4,
7 and 9. The two larger are ordinarily used, the No. 4 for extreme
range. A line having been fired within reach of the persons on the
wreck, an endless rope rove through a tail-block is sent out by it
with instructions, printed in English and French on a tally-board, to
make the tail fast to a mast or other elevated portion of the wreck.
This done, a 3-in. hawser is bent on to the whip and hauled off to the
wreck, to be made fast a little above the tail-block, after which the
shore end is hauled taut over a crotch by means of tackle attached to
a sand anchor. From this hawser the breeches-buoy or life-car is
suspended and drawn between the ship and shore of the endless
whip-line. The life-car can also be drawn like a boat between ship and
shore without the use of a hawser. The breeches-buoy is a cork
life-buoy to which is attached a pair of short canvas breeches, the
whole suspended from a traveller block by suitable lanyards. It
usually carries one person at a time, although two have frequently
been brought ashore together. The life-car, first introduced in 1848,
is a boat of corrugated iron with a convex iron cover, having a hatch
in the top for the admission of passengers, which can be fastened
either from within or without, and a few perforations to admit air,
with raised edges to exclude water. At wreck operations during the
night the shore is illuminated by powerful acetylene (calcium carbide)
lights. If any of the rescued persons are frozen, as often happens,
or are injured or sick, first aid and simple remedies are furnished
them. Dry clothing, supplied by the Women's National Relief
Association, is also furnished to survivors, which the destitute are
allowed to keep.

Several types of light open surf-boats are used, adapted to the
special requirements of the different localities and occasions. They
are built of cedar, from 23 to 27 ft. long, and are provided with end
air chambers and longitudinal air cases on each side under the
thwarts.