511 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[Ai-HiL 11, 1882 



RAPID MOTIONS PHOTOGRAPHED. 



TO H pnipir liko the Kn^liJ*)!, intort'niod by in)ii>rit<Ml tomloiiriim 

 in all active* pxrrciiipM, and OH|M'('iiillj in iKirHotnunflhip. tho 

 oxpprimi'ntii hiikIk liy Mr. Mnybriilgi' on tli« niovonionlmif Kalluping 

 horapH, rnnniri^ dn^fH, Ac, cnif^lit to ho ftill of intorodt, nnd hill 

 linrfviufnl iimnU^ry of inont diOiouIt pruhlnniH doHorvnii tlioir hi^hoHt 

 roc<)Kiiition. A (rw ycnm n^o llir ncwA that u phol4i^aphor of tian 

 KranciriMi h»<l Kui-ci'iMli-d in tukin^ phuto^^ruphH of a ((■'""{''"K 

 honk* wan n'ci'ivod horf with incredulity. Now wo Imvo tho 

 photiifn^iphrr himdclf iimonf? us, and tlio niranH of Htudyin^ liiH 

 pirturt'H in iinrli nnrt ax to rcnxiTc nil potmiliility of doubt ati to the 

 nMklity of hill triuniphn ovi-r ilillicultioN which hod naturally omoukIi 

 boon roganlod ax inniipornblc. That a horso ruflhin^ alon^ at tho 

 rato of a niilo in 1} minuton, and moving its limbH forward in part 

 of oncli Btrido with nearly twice that velocity, Hhould be seized by 

 photo);rnphic art no aa to show every limb well and clearly deli- 

 noatoil, wonid have swuied wonderful indeed to tho earlii'r prii- 

 fewiors of that art. Still more iimnzinf,' is it to find ten or twelve 

 distinct pictures taken durinj; a sinffle stride, the comparison of wiiich 

 •nf^«ff enables the most rapid of all e(|uine movement h to be analysed 

 as thoroughly as though the horse could bi- made logo through all tho 

 movements of the swiftest gallop at a funereal pace. Then, by 

 combining these together in n much improved kind of zootropo — the 

 xaopraxiscopo — tho horse can bo made to go through the action of 

 l^ulloping OS perfectly as though be were actually galloping before 

 tho eyes of the observer. This Mr. Sluybridge has done for the 

 i^illoping and leaping horse, the trotting and walking horse, the 

 dog running, leaping, and in the chase, cattle, wild bull, doer, 

 athletes, gymnast,'^, and even for birds. Not only the characteristic 

 niovoiuents of the different actions, but even those slight and scarce 

 definable |)cculiarities which distinguish the movements of one 

 athlete from another in performing the same feat, of one horso 

 from another in moving at the same giiit, and so forth, are perfectly 

 recognisable in the combination of pictures which, separately soon, 

 simply startle ua by the new light which they throw on the real 

 nature of these rapid motions. 



Whether figures thus unfamiliar should replace the conventional 

 forms by which artists have tried to re]>resent swiftly moving horses, 

 men, and other animals, is a point about which we apprehend that 

 art and Mr. Muybridgc may be some time at issue. But that the 

 utterly incorrect conventional pictures should go by the board 

 (whatever compromise should replace them) there can be very little 

 doubt. It is well known to artists that wrong colours and incorrect 

 shades have to bo used to produce particular effects ; and it may 

 well be that positions never at any single moment assumed by an 

 animal, may better suggest tho idea of motion than the somewhat 

 angainly positions which are (no( assunted, be it noticed, but are) 

 passed through by siWftly-running animals. But it is quite certain 

 that pictures so utterly and unnecessarily wrong as those which 

 have hitlierto done duty (save in a few exceptional cases) for moving 

 animals, must be improved out of existence. 



ELEPHANTS. 



BEFOUE tho Jumbo mania has quite passed away, it may bo 

 well to place before the readers of Knowledok a few facts iu 

 connection with the distribution of elei)hant8, past and present. 



It is well known that the two existing species of elephant are found, 

 «ne in Southern A.sia, the other iu Africa, and this represents their 

 distribution ever since the dawn of history ; but probably few of 

 the multitude lately thronging the Zoological Gardens to see the 

 gigantic African specimen lately shipped to America, knew, or cared 

 to remember, that perhaps under their feet reposed the fossil re- 

 mains of tho much more gigantic ancestors of the great beast they 

 came to admire, which once roamed wild through British forests ; 

 and that in the land to which ho has been consigned, now quite 

 destitute of wild elepbant.i, abundant traces are found of animals 

 of the same family long since extinct. The greater part of those 

 found fossil in America belong to tho gigantic Mastodon, which 

 difforod from the elephant in the form of its teeth, and in other 

 poculinrities, although resembling it in general form. "Tho bones 

 and teeth of tho .Mastodon," says Mantell, " have been found 

 throughout tho plains of North America, from north of Lake Krie, 

 to o« far south as Charluiton in South Carolina. There were also 

 ilimtodous peculiar to L'entral and Southern America. Tho remains 

 of other species have l»en discovered iu the Crag of Kngland, in 

 Frnnce, Switzerland, Oermnny, Spain, and Italy, in Asia Minor, and 

 in iH<vpral parts of Indio." But in addition to the remains of 

 Mastodon, both America and Europe can show geological records of 

 n nearer relative of the elephant, in the fossil remains of tho (ireat 

 Mammoth, which ore so abundant in Siberia, and which are found 

 .ilso in India. There is more than one 8|K-cie3 of elephant found 



fossil in Kngland, but tho Munimnth in tho chief, and groat intcreat 

 nttnchos to it, because although doubtleas it has bum extinct for an 

 imnii'MNO periixl, its remains arc found both in Kngland and France, 

 assrH-iatod'with tho n>ugh stone (I'alu'olithio) implomonta of early 

 man. In tho river gravels and cavo« of Kngland, many fossil 

 elephants have been found with tho weajions and tools of the wihj 

 hunters by whom probably they had been slain ; and all doubt aa to 

 tho co-ciistonce of man with this huge extinct animal is set at 

 rest by tho discovery, in one of tho French cavofl, of a drawing of 

 the Mammoth, made by the cave dwellers on a part of a tusk of the 

 animal. A cost of this rcnnirkable drawing may l>e seen in tho 

 British Museum, and by it wc see that this extinct elephant was 

 covered with long hair and wool, and had enormous tasks; the 

 tnithfulness of the representation having bocn proved by the 

 discovery in Siberia, in 1799, of an entire carcase imbedded in ice, 

 where it had lain for unknown ages. 



The great interest of these discoveries lies in tho fact of their 

 being found in the cold regions of Northern Eurojx;, Asia, and 

 America, whilst at present elephants do not range farther north 

 than 30° N. Tho woolly covering of tho Mammoth doubtless 

 enabled it to endure great cold, but it is certain that at present it 

 could not find sustenance in those regions where it was formerly so 

 abundant ; therefore its presence denotes that a great change of 

 climate has taken place in those regions, a fact confirmed by 

 many other geological observations, proving that a warm temperate 

 climate and abundant vegetation once existed within a few degrees 

 of the North Pole. 



'Hie question then arises as to the birth-place of these gigantic 

 ancestors of the elephants of Asia and Africa. From the abnn- 

 dance of the fo.ssil remains in the countries before-named, it seems 

 jjrobable that they originated in the north; nevertheless, it mast be 

 remembered that the bones of many species of elephant have been 

 found among tertiary deposits both in India and Europe, and how 

 they managed ti^ spread themselves over the American continent 

 and into Africa is a problem of general, as well as scientific interest. 

 It is evident that they do not owe their distribution to human 

 agency, for although man has been proved to have co-existed with 

 the Mammoth, it is certain he did not then possess cranes and steam 

 ships to convey huge beasts acro.^s the ocean ; it therefore follows 

 that at the time when Mammoths ranged freely over Britain, our 

 present island was not divided from tho continent by the waters of 

 the Channel ; this shows a considerable change in the distribution 

 of land and water, but the change must have been still greater in 

 the North, to enable the Mastodon and the Mammoth to pass 

 between America and Asia. As to Africa, which does not appear 

 to have been the original home of the elephant, it was undoubtedly 

 at one time united to Europe by land in the Mediterranean, which 

 allowed the passage, not only of elephants, but of other great 

 beasts now exclusively African, as the rhinoceros and hippopotamus, 

 which are also found fossil in England ; but this connection had 

 been broken long enough to allow of the total extinction of the 

 Mammoth in Europe, and the rise of the new species of elephant to 

 which Jumbo belongs, iu Africa, long before the dawn of history. 



This subject has been ably treated by Mr. Wallace in his books 

 on the *' Geographical Distribution of Animals," and " Island Life," 

 to which I would refer such readers of Knowlkdge as may desire 

 more information on these most interesting questions ; meanwhile, 

 it is possible that the deportation of Jumbo to America may in the 

 distant futm-e restore the elephant to that gicat continent. We 

 know that ancestors of the horse are to be found fossil in America, 

 but the horse was unknown to man on that continent before the 

 Spanish conquest, though now present in vast wild herds, so likewise 

 it is possible that Jumbo' .s descendants may at some time range 

 over the pi-airies as the Mastodon did of old ; and naturalists of 

 future centuries may, perhaps, trace to tho favourite of the British 

 Zoological Gardens the rise of a new species of elephant in America. 



A. W. Bdckland. 



