108 



CLAEK, JAMES. 



COLBUEN, ZEEAH. 



of State for Foreign Affairs, retiring with bis 

 colleagues in June, 1866. On the accession of 

 Mr. Gladstone to power in 1868, he was again 

 appointed Foreign Secretary, and held that 

 position up to his death. His intercourse with 

 the representatives of the United States, as 

 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was not, 

 at any period of his official career, very satis- 

 factory. Under a studied courtesy of manner, 

 which, in his long diplomatic and public life, 

 he had carefully cultivated, there was evident 

 a want of that cordial sympathy and regard 

 for the American nation and its institutions 

 which made diplomatic intercourse with him a 

 game of skill. 



CLAEK, Sir JAMES, Bart., M. D., K. 0. B., 

 F. E. S., a British physician and author, born- 

 at Cullen, Banffshire, December 14, 1788; died 

 in London, June 80, 1870. He was educated 

 at the Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 

 obtaining his medical degree at the latter in 

 1817. Soon after graduating M. D., he took 

 an appointment as surgeon in the British Navy, 

 and visited the hospitals and asylums and stud- 

 ied the methods of treatment in the great 

 cities of the Continent. In 1820 he was prac- 

 tising his profession in Eome; but not long 

 afterward returned to Edinburgh, where he 

 soon obtained a very high reputation, espe- 

 cially in pulmonary diseases. In 1826 lie re- 

 moved to London, where he became physician- 

 in-chief to St. George's Hospital, consulting 

 physician to the King, the Queen of the Bel- 

 gians, the Duchess of Kent, and the Princess 

 Victoria. On the accession of Victoria to the 

 throne she appointed Dr. Clark her first phy- 

 sician, and made him a baronet. He was also 

 physician-in-ordinary to the late Prince Albert. 

 Sir James was a diligent student of his profes- 

 sion throughout his long life, and published 

 several professional works of great value. The 

 most important of these were: "Medical 

 Notes," the result of his observations on the 

 Continent (1820) ; "The Sanative Influence of 

 Climate," first published in 1829, but which 

 has passed through numerous editions, and is 

 still highly prized; and most valuable of all, 

 his " Treatise on Pulmonary Consumption," 

 published in 1835, and often reprinted. 



COLBUEN, ZERAH, was born in Saratoga, 

 New York, in 1832, and was named after his 

 uncle, the celebrated arithmetician. His father 

 died soon after, and his mother, very poor and 

 infirm, removed to New Hampshire, where, 

 during his boyhood, young Colburn earned his 

 living on a farm. He soon after, as he found 

 means of support, removed to Boston. Mr. 

 Colburn commenced his professional career at 

 the age of fifteen, at the Lowell Machine-Shop, 

 next on the Concord Eailroad, under the late 

 Charles Minot, who was attracted by the 

 brightness and practical ideas of this singular 

 youth. He in a few months had mastered the 

 anatomy and physiology of the locomotive en- 

 gine, tabulated the dimensions and proportions 

 of those under his observation, and published 



a small but excellent and still useful treatise 

 on the subject. He then got a subordinate 

 position, and soon rose to the superintendence 

 of the locomotive works of Mr. Souther, in 

 Boston ; and at the Tredegar Works, at Eich- 

 mond, in connection with Mr. Souther, he 

 started the manufacture of locomotives. As 

 superintendent, for a year or more, of the 

 New-Jersey Locomotive Works at Paterson, he 

 made some improvements, still standard, in 

 the machinery of freight-engines. Although 

 eminently fitted for the management of prac- 

 tical construction, Mr. Colburn early found 

 that the literature of engineering was his true 

 calling. He, therefore, joined the Railroad 

 Journal. In 1854 he started, in New York, 

 the Railroad Advocate. In the summer of 

 1855 he sold the Advocate, bought land 

 warrants with the money, journeyed to Iowa 

 and located his lands, then returned to New 

 York, and got together an engine and ma- 

 chinery to set up a steam saw -mill in the far 

 West. But, before his plans were completed, 

 literature resumed the mastery. The story of 

 a three-months' stay among the machine and 

 iron works of England and France is recorded 

 in the Advocate, and is of permanent value. In 

 the autumn of 1857 Messrs. Colburn and Holley 

 were commissioned by several leading railroad 

 presidents to visit Europe, to report on the 

 railway system and machinery abroad, and in 

 1858 their report on these subjects, largely 

 illustrated by engravings, was published. The 

 success of this book was such that its authors 

 determined to continue their researches, and in 

 the fall of 1858 Mr. Colburn again visited Lon- 

 don. Here he commenced writing for the En- 

 gineer, then the leading professional journal, and 

 soon became its editor. Mr. Colburn at this time 

 wrote a supplement on the American practice 

 for a new edition of Mr. D. K. Clark's work on 

 the " Locomotive Engine." After several years' 

 hard work in London, Mr. Colburn resolved to 

 start another engineering paper in America ; 

 he selected Philadelphia as the birthplace of 

 his own Engineer. It was an excellent paper, 

 and the few numbers published will have per- 

 manent value. In a moment of despondency 

 he dropped his new enterprise, sailed for Eng- 

 land, and again became the editor of the Lon- 

 don Engineer. In 1866 Mr. Colburn started 

 in London the publication of Engineering, with 

 which he dissolved his connection only a few 

 weeks before his death. During his residence 

 in London, Mr. Colburn was employed as con- 

 sulting engineer on many important construc- 

 tions, and prepared many valuable papers in 

 addition to his editorial labors. The more 

 noted of these were his paper's before the In- 

 stitution of Civil Engineers (of which he was a 

 member) on "Iron Bridges" and on "Ameri- 

 can Locomotives and Soiling Stock," both of 

 which received medals. Mr. Colburn Avrote 

 vigorously, originally, and with understanding, 

 on all the leading subjects embraced under the 

 head of engineering. On the locomotive, the 



