September 21, 1893] 



NA TURE 



499 



2| miles per hour for 141 hoars.' In running he has covered 

 about 114 miles in an hour. In water he has proved him- 

 self capable of swimming 100 yards at the rate of 3 miles 

 per hour, and 22 miles at rather over I mile per hour. He can 

 easily climb the most rugged mountain path and descend the 

 same. He can swarm up a bare pole or a rope, and when of 

 suitable physique and trained from infancy can perform those 

 wonderful feats of strength and agility which we are accustomed 

 to expect from acrobats. He has shown himself able to jump 

 as high as 6 feet 2% inches from the ground, and over a hori- 

 zontal distance of 23 feet 3 inches, and has thrown a cricket- 

 ball as far as 3824 feet before it struck the ground. {Chambers 

 Encyclopedia, "Athletic Sports.") 



The attitude and action of a man in throwing a stone or a 

 cricket-ball, where he exerts a considerable force at several feet 

 from the ground, to which the reaction has to be transmitted and 

 to which he is in no way fastened, are unequalled in any artificial 

 machine. The similar but contrary action of pulling a rope 

 horizontally, as in "tug of war" competitions, is equally 

 remarkable. . • u j 



So also the power of the living human mechanism to withstand 

 widely diverse and excessive strains is altogether unapproachable 

 in artificial constructions. Thus, although fitted for an external 

 atmospheric pressure of about 15 lbs. to the square inch, he has 

 been enabled, as exemplified by Messrs. Glaisher and Coxwell 

 in 1862, to ascend to a height of seven miles, and breathe air at 

 a pressure of only 34 lbs. per square inch, and still live. And, 

 on the other hand, divers have been down into water 80 feet 

 deep, entailing an extra pressure of about 36 lbs. per square inch, 

 and have returned safely. One has even been to a depth of 150 

 feet, but the resulting pressure of 67 lbs. per square inch cost him 

 his life. {Pall Mall Gazette, July 5, 1893, p. 8.) 



Recent fasting performances (if the published records are to 

 be trusted) are not less remarkable when we are comparing the 

 human body .is a piece of mechanism with those of artificial 

 construction. For what artificial motor could continue its 

 funclions forty days and nights without fuel, or, if the material 

 of which it was constructed were gradually consumed to main- 

 tain the flow of energy, could afterwards build itself up again to 

 its original substance? 



These and other performances are, when considered in- 

 dividually and separately, often largely exceeded by other 

 animals specially adapted to their own limited spheres of activity. 

 The marvel is not, therefore, that the human bodily mechanism 

 is capable of any one kind of action, but that, in its various 

 developments, it can do all or any of them, and also carry a mind 

 endowed with far wider powers than any other animal. 



Animals other than man are also adapted for life and move- 

 ment on or about the surface of the earth. This includes a 

 certain distance below the ground, as in the case of earthworms; 

 under the water, as in the case offish ; on the water, as in the 

 case of swimming birds ; and in the air, as with flying birds. 



As far as I know, no animal burrows downwards into the 

 earth to a greater depth than 8 feet ("Vegetable Mould and 

 Earthworms," by Charles Darwin, p. m), and then only in dry 

 t'round. Man is naturally very ill-adapted for boring into the 



rth as the earthworm does. Indeed, without mechanical 



is he would be helpless in excavating or in dealing with 

 accumulations of water which are commonly met with 



"lerground. But by aid of the steam-engine for pumping, 



ijr air-compressing, ventilating, hauling, rock-boring, electric 



lighting, and so forth, and by the utilisation of explosives, he 



lins obtained a complete mastery over the crust of the earth and 



mineral contents, down to the depth where, owing to the 



crease of temperature, the conditions of existence become 

 ililTicult to maintain. 



I have said that on land, man, unaided by mechanism, has 

 been able to cover about llA miles in one hour. Two miles he 

 has been able to run at the rate of nearly 13 miles per hour, 

 nnd 100 yards at the rate of over 20 miles per hour. {Chambers^ 



"cydo/icitia, "Athletic Sports.") But the horse, though he 



unot walk faster than man, nor exceed him in jumping heights 

 .1 distances, can certainly beat him altogether when galloping 

 or trotting. A mile has been galloped in 103 seconds, equal to 

 35 miles per hour ; and has been trotted in 124 seconds, equal 

 to 29 miles per hour. {Chambers' Encyclopadia, " Horse.") 



There are many other animals, such as ostriches, greyhounds, 

 antelopes, and wolves, which run at great speeds, but reliable 



' Recent pedestrian race from Berlin to Vienna. 

 NO. 1247. VOL. 48I 



records are difficult to obtain, and are scarcely necessary for our 

 present purpose. 



Mechanical Aid without Extraneous Motive-power. 



Let us now consider how man's position as a competitor 

 with other animals in speed is affected by his use of mechanical 

 aids, but without any extraneous motive-power. 



Locomotion on Land. — Where there is a stretch of good ice, 

 and he is able to bind skates on his feet, he can thereby largely 

 augment his running speed. This was exemplified by the winner 

 of the match for amateurs at Haarlem last winter, who accom- 

 plished the distance of 3'i miles at the rate of about 21 miles 

 per hour. 



But the most wonderful increase to the locomotive power of 

 man on land is obtained by the use of the modern cycle. 

 Cycling is easily performed only where roads, wind, and weather 

 are favourable. But similar conditions must also be present 

 to secure the best speed of horses, with which we have been 

 making comparison. One mile has been cycled at the rate of 

 27-1 miles per hour (" Whitaker's Almanack," 1893), 50 at 

 20, 100 at i6-6 {Chambers' Encyclopaedia, "Cycling"), 388 

 at I2'5 {Times, September 26 to October 7, 1892), and 900 

 at 12-43 (" Whitaker's Almanack," 1893), miles per hour. 



The recent race between German and Austrian cavalry officers 

 on the high road between Vienna and Berlin has afl"orded an 

 excellent opportunity to judge of the speed and endurance of 

 horses as compared with men over long distances. Count 

 Starhemberg, the winner, performed the distance, about 388 

 miles, in 71-33 hours, equal to 5-45 miles per hour. He rested 

 only one hour in twelve. His horse, though successful, has 

 since died. (Vienna Berlin Race, June, 1893.) 

 j;Lawrence Fletcher cycled, also along the high roads, from 

 Land's End to John o' Groat's house, 900 miles, in 72-4 hours, 

 equal to 12-43 miles per hour, or more than double the distance 

 that the Count rode, and at above double the speed. To the 

 best of my knowledge he still lives, and is no worse for his 

 effort. The horse in this case would have to carry extra weight 

 equal to one-sixth of his own, and the cyclist equal to a quarter 

 of his own. But the horse carried himself and his rider on his 

 own legs, while the cyclist made his machine bear the weight 

 of itself and rider. Herein was probably the secret of his easy 

 victory. 



With the very remarkable exception of long-distance cycling, 

 which is of limited application, man, relying on his own bodily 

 strength, cannot successfully compete with other animals which, 

 like the horse, are specially fitted for rapid land locomotion. 

 His only alternatives are either to utilise the horse and ride or 

 drive him, and so get the benefit of his superior strength and 

 speed, or to use his own inventive faculty and construct ap- 

 pliances altogether apart from animal mechanisms. In either 

 case he virtually gives up the contest as a self-moving animal, 

 and to a great extent abandons himself to be carried by others 

 or by inanimate machinery. 



Nearly seventy years ago mankind came to this conclusion, 

 and the modern railway system is the result. The locomotive 

 will go at least double the speed of the race-horse. It will carry 

 not only itself, but three or four times its own weight in addition, 

 and will go, not two or three, but 100 miles or more without 

 stopping, if only the road ahead be clear. And the iron horse 

 is fed and controlled without even so much exertion as that put 

 forth by a man on a horse of flesh and bone. 



Locomotion in IVater.— Let us now consider the powers of 

 man relatively to other animals in moving upon and through 

 the great waters with which three-fourths of the earth's surface 

 is covered. Here he is in competition with fishes, aquatic 

 mammals, and swimming birds. 



I have already stated that, unaided by mechanism, he has 

 shown himself able to swim for .short distances at the rate of 

 three, and long distances (22 miles) at the rate of one mile per 

 hour. He has also given instances of being able to remain under 

 water for 44 minutes. (" Whitaker's Almanack," 1893.) 



Credible eye-witnesses inform me that porpoises easily over- 

 take and keep pace with a steamer going I2h knots, or, say, over 

 14 miles per hour, for an indefinite length of time. This is five 

 and fifteen times the maximum swimming speed of a man for 

 short and long distances respectively. No doubt the form and 

 surface of a fish, whose main busine-s is swimming, offer less re- 

 sistance, and his muscular power is more concentrated and better 

 applied towards propulsion in water than is the case with man, 

 , whose body is also adapted for so many other purposes. 



