Chapter IV: Front Matter (4)

The spiritual reaction of the colonies on the mother-land is much less considerable, yet is not nil. One or two instances stand out prominently. Jonathan Edwards is one of the giants of British as well as of American theology, and his treatise on the freedom of the will has counted for as much as Butler’s Analogy in the development of English theological thought. Sam Slick has been the father or foster-father of the portentous overgrowth of humor by which the United States balances the devouring activity of its public and the overstrain of its private life, but he has been practically inoperative on the very different quality of English humor. From South Africa have come influences of a sterner sort. “Who could have foreseen,” asks Mr. Stead, “that the new, and in many respects the most distinctive, note of the literature of the last decade of the nineteenth century would be sounded by a little chit of a girl reared in the solemn stillness of the Karoo, in the solitude of the African bush? The Cape has indeed done yeoman’s service to the English-speaking world. To that pivot of the empire we owe our most pronounced types of the imperial man and the emancipated woman”--Cecil Rhodes and Olive Schreiner.

CAUSES OF DEGENERATION IN BLIND FISHES.

BY PROFESSOR CARL H. EIGENMANN,

INDIANA UNIVERSITY.

It may now be profitable to take up the causes leading to the small degree of degeneration found in Chologaster, the degenerations of the eye in Amblyopsis, Typhlichthys and Troglichthys to a mere vestige, together with the total disappearance of some of the accessory structures of the eye, as the muscles.

In the outset of this consideration we must guard against the almost universal supposition that animals depending on their eyes for food are or have been colonizing caves, or that the blind forms are the results of catastrophes that have happened to eyed forms depending on their eyesight for their existence. This idea, so prevalent, vitiates nearly everything that has been written on the degeneration of the eyes of cave animals.

Another word of warning ought perhaps to be added. The process of degeneration found in the Amblyopsidæ need not necessarily be expected to be identical with the degeneration of the same organs in another group of animals, and, however much the conditions in one group may illuminate the conditions in another, cross-country conclusions must be guarded against.

The degeneration of organs ontogenetically and phylogenetically has received a variety of explanations:

1. The organ diminishes with disuse (ontogenetic degeneration--Lamarck, Roux, Packard), and the effect of this disuse appears to some extent in the next generation (phylogenetic degeneration--Lamarck, Roux, Packard, Kohl).

2. Through a condition of panmixia the general average maintained by selection is reduced to the birth mean in one generation (ontogenetic--Romanes, Lankester, Lloyd Morgan, Weismann) to the greatest possible degeneration in succeeding generations (phylogenetic--Weismann), or but little below the birth average of the first generation (Weismann’s later view, Romanes, Morgan, Lankester).

3. Through natural selection (reversed), the struggle of persons, the organ may be caused to degenerate either (A) by the migration of persons with highly developed eyes from the colony living in the dark (Lankester), or (B) through economy of weight and nutriment or liability to injury (phylogenetic purely--Darwin, Romanes).

4. Through the struggle of parts for room or for food an unused organ in the individual may be crowded (ontogenetic--Roux). This may lead to the development of the used organ as against the disused through a compensation of growth (Goethe, Saint-Hilaire, Roux); this ontogenetic result becomes phylogenetic through transmission of the acquired character (Roux), or is in its very nature phyloblastic (Kohl).

5. Through the struggle between soma and germ to produce the maximum of efficiency of the former with the minimum expenditure to the latter (ontogenetic and phylogenetic--Lendenfeld).

6. Through germinal selection, the struggle of the representatives of organs in the germ (ontogenetic and phylogenetic--Weismann).

The idea of ontogenetic degeneration is intimately bound up with the idea of phylogenetic degeneration. Logically we ought to consider first the causes of individual degeneration, and then the processes or causes that led to the transmission of this. Practically it is impossible to do so, because many of the explanations are general. Only No. 4 of the above may be taken in the ontogenetic sense purely, though it was certainly also meant to explain phylogenetic degeneration. In many of the explanations of particular cases of degeneration more than one of the above principles are invoked, though only one was meant to be used. In most cases, however, the discussions of degeneration have been in general terms, without direct bearing on any specific instance of degeneration in all its details. It must be evident that such discussions can only by accident lead to right results.

By the Lamarckian ontogenetic degeneration is considered the result of lack of use and consequent diminished blood supply. The results of the diminution caused by the lack of use during one generation are transmitted in some degree to the next generation, which thus starts at a lower level. A continuation of the same conditions leads finally to the great reduction and ultimate disappearance of an organ.

No one, so far as I am aware, has succeeded in accounting for the degeneration of the eye by means of this view. Packard’s[J] explanations are evidently a mixture of Lamarckism and Darwinism.

[J] _American Naturalist_, September, 1894, vol. xxviii, p. 727.

Packard says: “When a number, few or many, of normal-seeing animals enter a totally dark cave or stream, some may become blind sooner than others,” some having the eye slightly modified by disuse, while others may have in addition physical or functional defects, especially in the optic nerves and ganglia. “The result of the union of such individuals and adaptation to their Stygian life would be broods of young, some with vision unimpaired, others with a tendency to blindness, while in others there would be noticed the first steps in degeneration of nervous power and nervous tissue.” Packard evidently had invertebrates in mind. He clearly admits the cessation of selection or panmixia in that those born with defects may breed with the others. He supposes that the blind fauna may have arisen in but few or several generations, a supposition that may be applicable to invertebrates, but certainly is not to vertebrates. At first those becoming so modified that they can do without the use of their eyes would greatly preponderate over those ‘congenitally blind.’ “So all the while the process of adaptation was going on, the antennæ and other tactile organs increasing in length and in the delicacy of structures, while the eyes were meanwhile diminishing in strength of vision and their nervous force giving out, after a few generations--perhaps only two or three--the number of congenitally blind would increase, and eventually they would, in their turn, preponderate in numbers.” Packard seems here to admit the principle of degeneration as the result of compensation of growth, the nervous force of the eye giving out with the increase of the tactile and olfactory organs. It is somewhat doubtful in what sense the term ‘congenitally blind’ is used, but it probably means born blind as the result of transmitted disuse, rather than blind as the result of fortuitous variation. The effects of disuse are thus supposed, through their transmission, to have given rise to generations of blind animals. The continued degeneration is not discussed.

Romanes maintained that the beginning of degeneration was due to cessation of selection, and continued degeneration to the reversal of selection and final failing of the power of heredity. Selection he supposed to be reversed because the organ no longer of use “is absorbing nutriment, causing weight, occupying space and so on, uselessly. Hence, even if it be not also a source of actual danger, economy of growth will determine a reversal of selection against an organ which is now not only useless, but deleterious.” This process will continue until the organ becomes rudimentary and finally disappears.

Roux[K] attempted chiefly to explain degeneration in the individual. Degeneration is looked upon as the result of a struggle among the parts for (_a_) room and (_b_) food. Without doubting that both these principles are active agents in degeneration, it may be seriously doubted whether they are effective in the degeneration of the eyes in question. Certainly there can be no question of a struggle for room, for the position and room formerly occupied by the eye is now filled with fat, which can not have been operative against the eye. The presence of this large fat mass in the former location of the eye, the large reserve fat mass in the body, the uniformly good condition of the fish and the low vitality, which enables them to live for months without visible food, all argue against the possibility that the struggle for food between parts was an active agent in the degeneration of the eyes.

[K] Gesammelte Abhandlungen, 1895.

Kohl[L] considers that “_Der Grund und direkter oder indirekter Anlass zum Eintreten der Entwickelungshemmung ist Lichtmangel._” The method of operation of the lack of light he conceived to be as follows:

[L] Rudimentäre Wirbelthieraugen, 1893.

Other organs were developed to compensate for the disuse of the eye; and as the developmental force was used in the formation of these organs, each succeeding generation developed its eye less. The degeneration is thus explained as the result of a struggle of parts, although this term is nowhere used, acting through the principle of compensation. The same objections may be offered to this explanation of Kohl as to all his theoretical discussions--they are based on the assumption of conditions and processes that have no existence. The high development of ‘compensating’ organs is not primarily the result of the loss of the eye, but the high development of the former organs permitted the disuse and later degeneration of the latter. His whole process is a phylogenetic one, without a preceding ontogenetic one, though on this point he does not seem to be very clear himself, for on one page we are told that degeneration leads to retardation, and on another that degeneration is a consequence of retardation.

Ledenfeld[M] endeavors to apply Roux’s _Kampf der Theile_, with reversed selection, to explain the conclusions reached by Kohl on the processes and causes of degeneration. The struggle is represented as taking place between the germ and soma, the former endeavoring to keep the latter at the lowest efficient point as weapon for the germ. If a series of individuals get into the dark the organs of vision are of no advantage and reversed selection will bring about their degeneration. The saving in ontogeny appears first as a retardation and then as a cessation of development.

[M] Zoölogischer Centralblatt, 1896.

Weismann[N] more recently accepts the view of Romanes, Morgan and Lankester on the inadequacy of panmixia to explain the whole phenomena of degeneration, and in his ‘Germinal Selection’ rejects the idea of reversed selection, and suggests a new explanation for what Romanes attributed to the failure of heredity and the Lamarckians to transmission of the effects of disuse. The struggle of the parts of Roux has been crowded by him back to the representatives of these parts in the germ.

[N] The Monist, 1896, pp. 250-274.

“The phenomena observed in the stunting, or degeneration, of parts rendered useless ... show distinctly that ordinary selection, which operates by the removal of entire persons--personal selection, as I prefer to call it--can not be the only cause of degeneration, for in most cases of degeneration it can not be assumed that slight individual vacillations in the size of the organ in question have possessed selective value. On the contrary, we see such retrogressions effected apparently in the shape of a continuous evolutionary process determined by internal causes, in the case of which there can be no question whatever of selection of persons or of a survival of the fittest--that is, of individuals with the smallest rudiments. The gradual diminution continuing for thousands and thousands of years and culminating in its final and absolute effacement” can only be accomplished by germinal selection. Germinal selection as applied to degeneration is the formal explanation of Romanes’ failure of heredity through the struggle of parts for food. “Powerful determinants will absorb nutriment more rapidly than weaker determinants. The latter, accordingly, will grow more slowly and will produce weaker determinants than the former.” If an organ is rendered useless, the size of this organ is no longer an element in personal selection. This alone would result in a slight degeneration. Minus variations are, however, supposed to rest “on the weaker determinants of the germ, such as absorb nutriment less powerfully than the rest. This will enable the stronger determinants to deprive them even of the full quantum of food corresponding to their weakened capacity of assimilation, and their descendants will be weakened still more. Inasmuch, now, as no weeding out of the weaker determinants of the hind leg [or eye] by personal selection takes place on our hypothesis, inevitably the average strength of this determinant must slowly but constantly diminish--that is, the hind leg [or eye] must grow smaller and smaller until it finally disappears altogether.... Panmixia is the indispensable precondition of the whole process; for, owing to the fact that persons with weak determinants are just as capable of life as those with strong, ... solely by this means is a further weakening effected in the following generations.”

This theory presupposes the complex structure of the germ plasm formulated by Weismann and rejected by various persons for various reasons. But granting Weismann the necessary structure of the germ plasm, can germinal selection accomplish what is claimed for it? I think not. Granting that variations occur about a mean, would not all the effects claimed for minus variations be counteracted by positive variations? Eye determinants, which, on account of their strength, secure more than their fair share of food, and thereby produce eyes that are as far above the mean as the others are below, and leave descendent determinants that are still stronger than their ancestry would balance the effect produced by weak-eye determinants. It is evident that a large, really extravagant development of the eye in such a fish as Chologaster would not effect the removal of the individual by personal selection; still less so in Amblyopsis, which not only lives in comparative abundance, but has lived for twenty months in confinement without visible food, and in which the eye is minute. It seems that all the admitted objections to degeneration by panmixia apply with equal force to germinal selection. This, however, would be changed were the effect of disuse admitted to affect the determinants, and this it seems Weismann has unconsciously admitted. So far we have considered germinal selection in the abstract only. All its suppositions are found to be but a house of cards when the actual conditions of degeneration are considered. We find that degeneration is not a horizontal process affecting all the parts of an organ alike, as Weismann presupposes, not even a process in the reverse order of phyletic development, but the more vital, most worked parts degenerate first with disuse and panmixia; the passive structures remain longest. The rate of degeneration is proportional to the past activity of the parts, and the statement that “passively functioning parts--that is, parts which are not alterable during the individual life by function--by the same laws also degenerate when they become useless” finds no basis in fact, and is an example of the inexact utterances abundant in the discussion of degeneration on which it is entirely unsafe to build lofty theoretical structures. As one example of the unequal degeneration we need only call attention to the scleral cartilages and the rest of the eye of Troglichthys rosæ.

All are agreed that natural selection alone is insufficient to explain all, if any, of the processes of degeneration. All either consciously or not admit the principle of panmixia, and all are now agreed that this process alone can not produce extensive degeneration. All are agreed that the important point is degeneration beyond the point reached by panmixia, the establishment of the degenerating process, whatever it may be, in the germ, or, in other words, the breaking of the power of heredity. It is in the explanation of the latter that important differences of opinion exist.

Weismann attempts to explain the degeneration beyond the point which panmixia can reach by a process which not only is insufficient, even if all his premises are granted, to produce the desired result without the help of use transmission, but has as its result a horizontal degeneration which has no existence in fact.

Romanes supposed degeneration, beyond the point which may be reached by panmixia, to be the result of personal selection and the failure of the hereditary force. The former is not applicable to the species in question, and is denied by such an ardent Darwinist as Weismann to be applicable at all in accounting for degeneration. Moreover, the process as explained by Romanes would result in a horizontal degeneration which has no existence in fact. The second assumption, the failure of hereditary force, is not distinguishable, as Morgan has pointed out, from the effect of use transmission.

FIG. 1.--_Zygonectes notatus._
FIG. 2.--_Chologaster papilliferus._
FIG. 3.--_Chologaster Agassizii._
FIG. 4.--_Amblyopsis spelæus._
FIG. 5.--_Troglichthys rosæ._
FIG. 6.--_Typhlichthys subterraneus._
]

The struggle of parts in the organism has not affected the eye through the lack of room, since the space formerly occupied by the eye is now filled by fat and not by an actively functioning organ. It is not affected by the struggle for food, for stored food occupies the former eye space. It could only be affected by the more active selection of specific parts of food by some actively functioning organ. It is possible that this has in fact affected the degeneration of the eye. The theory explains degeneration in the individual, and implies that the effect in the individual should be transmitted to the next generation. This second part seems but the explanation of the workings of the Lamarckian factor.

The Lamarckian view--that through disuse the organ is diminished during the life of the individual, in part, at least, on account of the diminution of the amount of blood going to a resting organ, and that this effect is transmitted to succeeding generations--not only would theoretically account for unlimited progressive degeneration, but is the only view so far examined that does not on the face of it present serious objections. Is this theory applicable in detail to the conditions found in the Amblyopsidæ? Before going further, objections may again be raised against the universal assumption that the cessation of use and the consequent panmixia was a sudden process. This assumes that the caves were peopled by a catastrophe. But it is absolutely certain that the caves were not so peopled, that the cessation of use was gradual, and the cessation of selection must also have been a gradual process. There must have been ever-widening bounds within which the variation of the eye would not subject the possessor to elimination.

Chologaster is in a stage of panmixia as far as the eye is concerned. It is true the eye is still functional, but that the fish can do without its use is evident by its general habit and by the fact that it sometimes lives in caves. The present conditions have apparently existed for countless generations--as long as the present habits have existed--and yet the eye still maintains a higher degree of structure than reverse selection, if operative, would lead us to expect, and a lower than the birth mean of fishes depending on their eyes, the condition that the state of panmixia alone would lead us to expect. There is a staying quality about the eye with the degeneration, and this can only be explained by the degree of use to which the eye is subjected.

The results in Chologaster are due to panmixia and the limited degree of use to which the eye is put. Chologaster Agassizii shows the rapid diminution with total disuse.

The difference in the conditions between Chologaster and Amblyopsis, Typhlichthys and Troglichthys, is that in the former the eyes are still in use, except when living in caves; in the latter they have not been in a position to be used for hundreds of generations. The transition between conditions of possible use and absolute disuse may have been rapid with each individual after permanently entering a cave. Panmixia, as regards the minute eye, continued. Reversed selection, for economy, can not have affected the eye for reasons already stated. The mere loss of the force of heredity, unless this was caused by disuse, or the process of germinal selection, can not have brought about the conditions, because some parts have been affected more than others.

Considering the parts most affected and the parts least affected, the degree of use is the only cause capable of explaining the conditions. Those parts most active during use are the ones reduced most--viz., the muscles, the retina, optic nerve and dioptric appliances, the lens and vitreous parts. Those organs occupying a more passive position, e. g., the scleral cartilages, have been much less affected. The lens is one of the latest organs affected, not at all during use, possibly because during use it would continuously be in use. It disappears most rapidly after the beginning of absolute disuse both ontogenetically and phylogenetically. All indications point to use and disuse as the effective agents in molding the eye. The process, however, does not give results with mathematical precision. In Typhlichthys subterraneus the pigmented layer is affected differently from that of Amblyopsis. The variable development of the eye muscles in different species would offer another objection if we did not know of the variable condition of these structures in different individuals. Chilton has objected to the application of the Lamarckian factor to explain degeneration, on account of the variable effects of degeneration in various invertebrates. But such differences in the reaction are still less explainable by any of the other theories.

THE EVOLUTION AND PRESENT STATUS OF THE AUTOMOBILE.

BY WILLIAM BAXTER, JR.

In this closing year of a century which is marked by unparalleled advances in science and its applications to the industrial arts, we are very much inclined to take it for granted that none of the inventions that are regarded by us as indicative of the highest order of progressive tendency, could by any possibility have been thought of by our forefathers; and as the automobile is looked upon as an ultra-progressive idea, no one who has not investigated the subject would believe for a moment that its conception could antedate the present generation, much less the present century. The records, however, show that the subject engrossed the attention of inventive minds many hundreds of years ago. In fact, as far back as the beginning of the thirteenth century a Franciscan monk named Roger Bacon prophesied that, the day would come when boats and carriages would be propelled by machinery.

The first authentic record of a self-propelled carriage dates back to the middle of the sixteenth century. The inventor was Johann Haustach, of Nuremburg. The device is described as a chariot propelled by the force of springs, and it is said that it attained a speed of two thousand paces per hour, about one mile and a quarter. Springs have been tried by many inventors since that time, but always without success from the simple fact that the amount of energy that can be stored in a spring is practically insignificant.

In 1763 a Frenchman by the name of Cugnot devised a vehicle that was propelled by steam, and a few years after the date of his first experiment, constructed for the French Government a gun carriage which is shown in Fig. 1. As will be seen, the design was of the tricycle type, and it was intended to mount the gun between the rear wheels. The boiler, which resembles a huge kettle, hung over the front end and was apparently devoid of a smoke stack. Motion was imparted to the front wheel by means of a ratchet. Although this invention is very crude, it must be regarded as meritorious if we consider that it was made before the steam engine had been developed in a successful form for stationary purposes.

The next effort to solve the problem was made by W. Symington in the year 1784, the carriage devised by him being illustrated in Fig. 2. This coach, although pretentious in appearance, was crude mechanically, but it actually ran. The service, however, was not what could be called satisfactory.

In 1803, Richard Trevithick brought out the carriage shown in Fig. 3, which could run, but was artistically a failure. Moreover, the machinery was such as would soon give out, even if well designed, on account of its exposed position.

Between 1805 and 1830, quite a number of steam vehicles were invented and put into practical operation. Fig. 4 shows a very elaborate coach of this period, which was invented by W. H. James, and constructed with the assistance of Sir James Anderson, Bart. The machinery used in this design consisted of two powerful steam engines, one being connected with each one of the hind wheels in a manner similar to that employed in locomotives at the present time. The wheels were not fast upon the axle, hence they could revolve at different velocities in rounding curves. In this respect this invention embodied one of the features commonly used by automobiles of the latest design. Two boilers were provided, one for each engine, and the record says that with one boiler the speed was six to seven miles per hour.

Fig. 5 shows an omnibus invented by Hancock. This vehicle ran on a regular route, carrying passengers from Pentonville to Finsbury Square, London. Fig. 6 shows a carriage invented by Burstall and Hiel, which attracted a great deal of attention. It was probably the most complete and perfect mechanically of any invention that had been made up to that time.

Fig. 7 shows a carriage invented by Squire and Maceroni, who had been for a long time in the service of Goldsworth Gurney, one of the most noted experimenters of his day in steam propulsion. A number of carriages were made by these workers, on designs similar to Fig. 7, and it is said that they ran at a high rate of speed, probably ten miles per hour.

Fig. 8 illustrates an invention that is interesting from the fact that it was to be operated by compressed air, and perhaps was the first effort to utilize this form of stored energy for the propulsion of vehicles. It was not a success, but its failure was due to the fact that the inventor labored under the delusion that the laws of nature could be circumvented by skillfully contrived mechanical devices so as to obtain something from nothing. The body of the carriage was used as a reservoir for the compressed air, and within the wheels were placed a number of pumps, the short bars projecting from the peripheries being the ends of the plungers. The expectation was that as the wheels revolved, the plungers would be depressed, and thus air would be pumped into the reservoirs and this air would operate the engine that propelled the vehicle; hence the apparatus would supply its own power, and realize perpetual motion. If this attempt to controvert the laws of nature had not been relied upon, better results might have been obtained.

The highly ornamental coach shown in Fig. 9 was invented by Dr. Church about 1832. In addition to being ornamental, it was of massive construction and large capacity, being able to accommodate fifty passengers. Its operation is said to have been very satisfactory, a high rate of speed being attained and all grades on ordinary roads being easily mounted. The inventor swamped himself in endeavoring to compete with railroads.

Perhaps the most perfect of all the early automobiles was the one devised by Scott Russell, the celebrated designer of the Great Eastern. This carriage is shown in Fig. 10. It was operated successfully, and was able to mount the steepest hills and to attain a high rate of speed, but as coal was used for fuel and the engines were of large capacity, it is probable that the smoke, exhaust steam and noise of the machinery were decidedly objectionable features. A line of these coaches was put in commission in Glasgow in 1846, each one having a seating capacity of twenty-six, six inside and twenty on the top. After several months of successful operation, the line was withdrawn on account of the opposition of the authorities and of the general public.

These few examples of the early attempts to solve the problem of mechanical propulsion of vehicles are sufficient to show that the automobile is not entirely a creation of the progressive mind of the latter part of the nineteenth century, but that it engrossed the attention of inventors more than one hundred and thirty years ago. The success attained by the workers in this field at different periods was directly in proportion to the degree to which the form of power used had been perfected at the time. The first inventors attained but slight success, owing to the fact that, in their time, the steam engine was in a crude form, but as the construction of the latter improved, so did that of the vehicles operated by it.

Before the days of steam, the power of wind mills was utilized to propel vehicles, and with such success that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries wind-propelled wagons or ‘Charvolants,’ as they were called, were very numerous upon the flat plains of the Netherlands.

From 1845 up to the early nineties, a period of nearly half a century, very little was done in the way of developing the automobile. From time to time inventors in various parts of the world devoted themselves to the subject, but they were generally looked upon as visionary cranks, and their work attracted little attention. During this period there was an almost universal prejudice against the use of any kind of mechanical power upon the streets or public highways, and it is even possible that if during these years any one had invented a horseless carriage, perfect in every way, he would have failed to obtain proper recognition. Prejudice against mechanically-propelled vehicles has gradually worn away, probably because of the introduction of cable and trolley cars, and at the present time the majority of people desire to see the substitution of mechanical for animal power. As a result of this change in public opinion, self-propelled vehicles are accepted as entirely satisfactory, which a few years ago would have been regarded as failures. Notwithstanding this tolerant feeling, however, it is very doubtful whether the cumbersome coaches of the early part of the century would be received with favor at the present time when taste and requirements are entirely different. What is now desired is a light, fast-running and attractive vehicle, which could not be constructed along the lines followed by the inventors of former days. The automobile of to-day is a far more perfect device than its predecessors, although it can not be said to have reached a state of perfection. As motive power, steam, gasoline and electricity are used. Which of the three is the best, taking all things into consideration, it would be difficult to say, as each one has its defects as well as its advantages, and the evident superiority of each one in a certain direction is offset by deficiencies in other directions.

In every civilized country, where the mechanic arts are far enough advanced, automobiles are now being manufactured, but France is the country where modern development first began, and up to the present time it has maintained its leading position, although in quality of product, other nations, if not on a par with it, are certainly not very far behind.

The perfection to which the steam automobile has been developed in these latter days is due mainly to the efforts of L. Serpollet, a distinguished French engineer. Other highly successful steam carriages are now manufactured in England and in this country, as well as in several European nations, but Serpollet was the first to bring forth a successful fast-running and attractive vehicle, and the others have profited by his work.

One of the many designs of Serpollet carriages is shown in Fig. 11; Fig. 12 shows more fully the arrangement and location of the machinery. The engine used in these vehicles is made with four cylinders of the single action type; that is, they take steam at one end only. By using this construction, while the number of cylinders is increased, the other parts are greatly simplified, as the piston rods, crossheads and guides can be dispensed with. In addition, the whole engine can be made very compact.

The boiler is of the flash type; that is, it carries no water ordinarily, but when the engine is in operation, a pump injects into the boiler at each stroke of the engine as much water as may be required to generate the steam necessary to propel the vehicle; the instant the water enters the boiler it is converted into steam. As the amount of steam is proportional to the amount of water, it can be seen that by regulating the water supply, the power of the engine and thereby the speed of the carriage, can be controlled. This is the method actually employed to control the speed. In starting, a handle is moved which connects the engine, the boiler and the pump in the proper relation; and while under way the velocity is varied by the manipulation of a lever which controls the amount of water injected into the boiler. The fuel used is kerosene, which is vaporized and then fed into a properly constructed burner. The amount of oil supplied to the burner is regulated by the same lever that regulates the supply of water, so that both are increased or reduced in the proper proportion. The boiler is constructed of a number of steel tubes, which are about two and a half inches in diameter, and from three eighths to half an inch thick. These tubes are pressed into the form shown in Fig. 13, the dark line in the section marked A representing the interior space. A number of tubes collapsed in this form and bent into the shape B, are assembled as shown at C. The number of tubes depends upon the capacity of the boiler. As the tubes are very thick, they can, without any danger of bursting, be heated to so high a temperature that the water injected into them is at once turned into steam.

In Fig. 12 it will be seen that the engine is located under the body of the carriage between the two axles, and that motion is imparted to the hind wheels by means of chains and sprocket wheels. The boiler is located at the back of the vehicle, the lower part projecting some distance below the rear axle. A small smoke stack at the rear of the body allows the gases of combustion to escape. Between the front wheels, a compact condenser is located, and into this the steam from the engine is exhausted. The condenser serves two purposes; it recovers a portion of the water that would otherwise escape into the air, and thus increases the distance the carriage can run without a new supply, and at the same time it lessens the noise produced by the exhaust, and also the volume of steam escaping into the atmosphere, which in cold or rainy weather becomes plainly visible.

Although we have been rather slow in this country in taking up the automobile, inventors and manufacturers are now working at a pace that will soon make up for lost time. We already have a number of designs of steam carriages whose operation is highly creditable. Fig. 14 illustrates one of these. The design of the engine, boiler and other mechanism can be well understood from Fig. 15, in which a portion of the body is removed to expose the internal parts.

The boiler is a very compact form of the upright type, such as is used in fire engines. It is about fourteen inches in diameter and twenty inches high. To increase its strength, it is surrounded with two layers of piano wire. The engine is of the locomotive type, consisting of two cylinders, the pistons of which are connected with cranks on the end of the shaft, these cranks being set at right angles, so as to prevent catching the engine on the dead center. The direction of rotation is reversed by means of the ordinary link motion. The fuel used is gasoline, which is carried in the cylindrical tank located under the front of the carriage. The gasoline is vaporized and then, mixed with a proper proportion of air, passes to a burner placed under the boiler. The amount of steam generated is regulated by the amount of gasoline supplied to the burner, and this supply in turn is regulated by the pressure of the steam, so that the action is entirely automatic. The cylinder H is a reservoir of compressed air, connected with tank I, so that the gasoline is under pressure, and therefore is forced through the pipe to the burner under the boiler. Between the burner and the tank there is a valve controlled by the steam pressure, being opened when the pressure is low and closed when it is high. When the pressure reaches a certain point the valve is closed entirely, so that even if the carriage is running very slowly, it is not possible to run the pressure above the fixed limit. The exhaust passes from the engine cylinders into a muffler, from which it escapes into the pipe K. This pipe projects downward into an opening through the center of the water tank, and the draught produced thereby draws the gases of combustion through from the top of the boiler to the under side of the carriage body, where they escape into the atmosphere.

Directly in front of the exhaust muffler is seen the water gauge, which is in such a position as to be outside of the carriage body, as shown in Fig. 14. A mirror is placed at the front of the vehicle, and by looking into this the water gauge can be seen. Fig. 14 also shows clearly the position of the operating levers at the side of the carriage.

The actual construction of the engine is better shown in Fig. 16, in which A A are the cylinders, B is the steam chest and G G are the valve rods. The piston rods connect with the crossheads C. The connecting rods D transmit motion from the latter to the cranks E, and thus rotate the shaft S. The link motions, by means of which the direction of rotation is reversed, are at I I, and are operated by the lever G, which is mounted upon the shaft F F. This shaft is directly connected with the starting lever. The boiler feed pump is located at M. The motion of the engine is transmitted to the rear axle of the carriage by means of a chain that runs over the sprocket wheel L located between the eccentrics K K. In Fig. 15, this wheel is located at D, and the chain F connects it with the axle sprocket E.

Fig. 17 shows another American steam carriage. In this vehicle the running gear is a complete truck, upon which the carriage body is supported. The appearance of the truck with the body removed is shown in Fig. 18. The boiler is of the tubular type and the double cylinder engine is secured to its side. In this particular the construction differs from that of the previously described carriage, for in that the engine is attached to the cross-framing of the body of the vehicle. Although the general appearance of the mechanism of these two carriages is very similar, there are many differences in the details of their construction. In both, vertical tubular boilers are used, and the steam is generated by the use of gasoline, which is burned in the vaporized state in specially constructed burners. The engine in both cases is of the vertical double cylinder type, and motion is transmitted to the hind axle by means of sprocket wheels and a chain; but here the similarity ends; the minor details, which it is not necessary to refer to in this connection, are with few exceptions very different.

A careful examination of Figs. 11, 14 and 17 will show that from an artistic point of view these examples of steam carriages are satisfactory. In regard to their operation it can be said that they have sufficient power to run up the steepest grades encountered on ordinary roads at a fair rate of speed, while on level ground their velocity is more than enough to satisfy the average rider. The danger of explosion is so remote that it need not be considered. The Serpollet boiler is practically inexplosive, while those used in the American vehicles are so constructed that they can withstand a pressure far greater than any they can be subjected to in practice. It might be expected that the motion of the machinery would produce an unpleasant vibration, but on account of the lightness of the moving parts and careful balancing, this effect is much reduced. The use of gasoline as fuel, in connection with automatic burners, eliminates the smoke and ashes incident to the use of coal, and in addition reduces the labor of handling the vehicle, as no attention need be given to the mechanism other than to see that the water in the boiler is maintained at the proper level. In the case of the Serpollet carriages, not even this point need be looked after, as the feed of the boiler is perfectly automatic.

SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF THE NORWEGIAN POLAR EXPEDITION, 1893-1896.[O]

BY GENERAL A. W. GREELY, U. S. ARMY.

[O] The Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893-1896. Scientific
Results edited by Fridtjof Nansen. Vol. I. Longmans, Green
& Co. N. Y., 1900. 1-16, 3 pl. 1-147, 3 pl. 1-26, 2 pl.
1-53 pl. 1-137, 36 pl.

Few Arctic expeditions have done so much to increase the world’s knowledge as to the physical condition of large areas of the north polar zone as has that of the _Fram_, initiated and commanded by Dr. Fridtjof Nansen.

The expedition was unique in many respects. The _Fram_ was a departure from the accepted models of Arctic ships; the route followed was one unindorsed by any Arctic authority. The ship was destined to drift unprecedented distances, beset by the enormous ice-pack of the Arctic ocean. The commander himself was not only to attain the highest north, but was to make a most hazardous journey, which was to have a successful and unexpected issue partly through the aid of another polar expedition whose location and existence were unknown to the expeditionary forces of the _Fram_. Electricity made the Arctic ship a glow of light, a phonograph brought well-known voices to cheer their hours of leisure. Indeed, every device that was deemed of value was utilized.

The extent of the Arctic ocean traversed by the _Fram_ is indicated by the simple fact that she passed over 120 degrees of longitude above the eightieth parallel of north latitude, a distance of one-third around the world on that parallel.

Nansen and Johansen, in an attempt to reach the Pole, left the _Fram_ March 14, 1895, in about 84° N., 100 E., but after an uneventful journey with dogs, they were obliged to turn back on April 7, 1895, in latitude 86° 14′ N. They aimed to reach Spitzbergen and after months of weary effort and varying fortunes, these two hardy men landed on the east coast of the Franz Josef archipelago. Coming winter forbade further progress, so they constructed a hut and subsisted on land and sea game that was fortunately abundant. In the spring of 1896, turning southward, they attempted to reach by the kyak the east coast of Spitzbergen, hoping to be picked up by Norwegian whalers who frequent those waters. Fortunately for them, they met in April, 1896, Jackson, the commander of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition, near Cape Flora.

Meanwhile the _Fram_, continuing its westerly drift, in which it passed the most northerly point reached by Parry in boats in 1827, emerged from the ice-floe of the Arctic ocean in the late summer of 1896 and reached Norway on August 20, about ten days later than Nansen’s own arrival with the English expedition from Franz Josef Land. The _Fram_ returned with its frame uninjured and its expeditionary force in health, after having covered in its voyage across the unknown Polar sea an enormous area, estimated at fifty thousand square miles.

The most important discovery was the oceanic depth of the Arctic Sea, where for hundreds of miles this unknown ocean disclosed a depth of over two miles. Naturally the absence of land limited the phases of the scientific work of the expeditionary force, which devoted itself to recording the phenomena of the air and the sea.

Nansen in his separate journey utilized his brief opportunities in Franz Josef Land so successfully that his contributions to the geology of that region are of no small importance.

The world has looked forward with a degree of impatience to the publication of the scientific results of this expedition, and now is favored with the first volume, a beautiful quarto of some 479 pages, with 46 fine plates. It consists of a series of memoirs on the building of the ship, on the birds of the air, on the crustacean forms of sea life and a geological study of the southern part of the archipelago of Franz Josef Land. It is a striking tribute to English-speaking scientists that the work will appear in English text only. Although printed in Christiana, such has been the vigilance of the editors that typographical errors are comparatively few.

The account by Colin Archer of the construction of the _Fram_ is not without interest, in view of the fact that this vessel was built on novel lines calculated to cause the ice to meet a sloping surface, so that, pressing down under the bilge, it would cause the vessel to rise and thus insure its immunity from destruction.

Archer says: “In order to utilize this principle, it was decided to depart entirely from the usual deep-bilged form of section and to adopt a shape which would afford the ice no point of attack normal to the ship’s side, but would, as the horizontal pressure increased, force the attacking floes to divide under the ship’s bottom, lifting her as described above.... Plane or concave surfaces were avoided as much as possible by giving her round and full lines. This, while increasing the power to resist pressure from outside, also had the advantage of making it easy for the ice to glide along the bottom in any direction.”

As great length is an element of weakness, the _Fram’s_ length was cut down as much as possible, with a tendency to make its form circular or oval. Various expedients were adopted to reduce the dead weight of the ship by a judicious arrangement of materials. While economizing weight, the cargo-carrying capacity of the ship could not be too much reduced, and the great strength of the ship must be preserved. Inasmuch as the broadside of the ship, both structurally and from its shape, is its weakest part, it was necessary to adopt extraordinary measures to strengthen it. This was done largely by adding stays of yellow pine placed nearly at right angles to the ship’s sides, and securely fastened with wooden knees. These were supplemented with upright stanchions tied by iron straps.

While experienced whalers strongly advocated the square rig, Archer decided to ignore their advice and rigged the _Fram_ as a fore-and-aft three-masted schooner, which style of rig proved, under the circumstances, to be most suitable. The slight increase in leakage is believed by Archer to be due in part to the drawing of the oakum out of the seams and in part to the expansion and contraction of the timbers. While the _Fram_ was not subjected to such tremendous ice convulsions as have been many other Arctic ships, yet her experiences were very severe and may be considered to prove that the design and system of construction adopted were the most efficient possible.

The most extensive, if not the most important, of the treatises that form this volume, relate to regions and investigations with which the voyage of the _Fram_ were only incidentally connected. Reference is had to the papers on the geological formations of Cape Flora, Franz Josef Land, by Professors Nansen, Pompeckj and Nathorst. Dr. Nansen most cordially acknowledges his great indebtedness to Mr. Jackson and Dr. Reginald Koettlitz, respectively the leader and geologist of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition to Franz Josef Land, 1894-1896. The latter of these gentlemen, in a spirit of broad scientific generosity, accorded Dr. Nansen full and equal access to his discoveries, covering three years’ work on Northbrook Island, among fossils and geological conditions of special interest.

Nansen confines himself to a brief geological sketch of Cape Flora and its neighborhood; Pompeckj treats fully the Jurassic fauna, while Nathorst briefly discusses the fossil plants.

Nansen says: “Through Jackson’s kindness and Koettlitz’s valuable assistance, I was enabled to make a collection of fossils and rocks from the Jurassic deposits of this locality.”

“(Koettlitz) took me to places where, before my arrival, he had already found fossils, or had observed anything of importance. Had it not been for him I should certainly not have been able to do what little I did during the few days at my disposal. I agree with Koettlitz on all essential points, and have nothing new of importance to add to what he has already said.”

As Nansen elsewhere remarks, the memoirs of Pompeckj and Nathorst supplement the papers of Koettlitz, Newton and Teall, which appeared in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 1897, pp. 477-519, and 1898, pp. 620-651.

Pompeckj describes fully the various fossils, illustrates them with wealth of detail, discusses their stratigraphical relations, and outlines the paleographical history of Franz Josef Land.

Of the twenty-six species collected by Nansen no less than seventeen are new as compared with the Jackson-Harmsworth collection, which contains five species lacking to Nansen. There are representatives of single species only of echinoderms, vermes and gastropods, the scarcity of the last named being generally characteristic of the Jurassic fauna of the arctic regions, whether in Siberia, Greenland, or Arctic America. On the other hand, at Cape Flora the cephalopods and the lamellibranchs predominate very largely. This fact makes most notable the absence of the lamellibranch genus _Aucella_, with all other forms that are especially characteristic of the higher Jura.

The following new species have been determined by Pompeckj: _Pseudomonotis Jacksoni_, an ornamented shell of a remarkably large Aviculid form. _Macrocephalites Koettlitzi_, a shell with a very narrow umbilicus and almost completely encircling whorls. _Cadoceras Nanseni_, an ammonite showing a flat disc-like growth, with moderately thick whorls of which cross-sections are nearly elliptical. Another ammonite may possibly be a variety of _C. Nanseni_, but Pompeckj considers that it is a separate species owing to its wider umbilicus, less pronounced involution and somewhat asymmetrical lobe-line.

Pompeckj’s outline of the paleontographical history of Franz Josef Land is worthy of careful consideration by all interested in this department of science, although many may differ from some of the conclusions reached by him. Commenting on the stratigraphical studies of Prof. E. T. Newton, Pompeckj states that his own investigations compel him to differ materially from the inferences drawn and theories advanced by that scientist.

Pompeckj says: “The occurrence of these three genera of Ammonites proves that the marine fauna of Cape Flora contain representatives of the Callovian. More recent marine horizons have certainly not been formed at Cape Flora, as far as I can judge from the collection of fossils before me.... The Oxfordian and all the more recent Jurassic horizons do not occur as marine deposits at Cape Flora.”

He finds species pertaining to the Lower Bajocian, Lower, Middle and Upper Callovian horizons. It is most interesting to note that only one other part of the arctic regions, Prince Patrick Island, Parry Archipelago, has produced fossils, described by Haughton as Lias, that are certainly older than the Callovian. It is, however, recognized as possible that Lundgreen’s fossils from East Greenland may form another exception.

Pompeckj points out that while the Bajocian fauna of Cape Flora is without analogy in the arctic regions, it nevertheless presents distinct affinities to the Central European Jura, and especially resembles the Russian Callovian.

Moreover, this Jurassic collection from Cape Flora is of special importance in outlining the geographic distribution of that system. Pompeckj adds: “Hence the existence of a Bajocian sea in the north of the Eurasian Jura continent is proved beyond all doubt.... As early as the Bajocian period, there existed a Shetland Straits, which separated the Eurasian continent, existing through the Lias period until the end of the Bathonian, from the nearctic Jura continent.”