TRANSACTIOKS OF SECTION G. 867 



"be the leading features of ocean-transit steamers if they are to attain commercial 

 success — there I must refer you to those magnificent examples of naval archi- 

 tecture which are more or less familiar to you all, and of which we, as a maritime 

 nation, are so justly proud. If, for example, we turn our attention for a moment 

 to the new Cunard liners, the ' Campania' and ' Lucania,' having each a weight or 

 displacement of 18,000 tons and 24,000 effective horse-power, or 1'33 horse-power 

 per ton of displacement, we shall find that, with the commercial advantages alluded 

 to, they obtain a maximum speed of 22'5 knots, or ahout 26 miles per hour. 



If, instead of 1'33 effective horse-power per ton of displacement, they were 

 provided with eight times that amount, or 10'64 horse-power per ton, thereby 

 sacrificing passenger and cargo accommodation, and making them nearly as full of 

 propelling machinery as the ' Ariete ' torpedo-boat, and if it were then found 

 possible to apply this enormous power effectively, then there is every reason to 

 believe they would accomplish for short distances double the speed, or, say, 45 knots, 

 or about 52 statute miles, per hour. 



By inventing and utilising mechanical contrivances entirely independent of his 

 own bodily strength, man can now pass over the surface of the waters at the rate 

 of over 500 knots per day, and at the same time retain the comforts and con- 

 veniences of life as though he were on shore. He has in this way beaten the 

 natural and specially fitted denizens of the deep in their own element, as regards 

 speed and continuity of effort. But he is still behind them as to safety. We do 

 not find that fishes or aquatic mammals often perish in numbers, as man does, by 

 collisions in fogs, or by being cast on lee shores and rocks by stress of weather. 

 Shall we ever arrive at the point of making ocean travelling absolutely safe ? The 

 Cunard Company is able to boast that from its commencement, fifty-three years 

 ago, it has never lost a passenger's life or a letter; a statement which gives ground 

 for hope that almost absolute safety is attainable. But, on the other hand, other 

 owners of almost equal repute (not excluding the British Admiralty) are ever and 

 anon losing magnificent vessels on rocks, in collisions, by fire, and even by stress of 

 weather, in a way which makes us doubt whether it is possible for Britannia or 

 any one else really to * rule the waves.' 



In one way the chances of serious disaster have been of late largely diminished, 

 and here, again. Nature has been oiur teacher. The bodies of all animals except 

 the very lowest are symmetrically formed on either side of a central longitudinal 

 plane. Each important limb is in duplicate, and if one side is wounded the other 

 can still act. We have at last found out the enormous advantage and increased 

 safety of having the whole of our ship-propelling machinery in duplicate, and 

 our ships made almost unsinkable by one longitudinal and numerous transverse 

 bulkheads. 



Locomotion in Air. — I now come to consider what is the position of man as 

 regards locomotion in and through the great atmospheric envelope which surrounds 

 the earth, in comparison with animals specially fitted by Nature for such work. 



Nature seems never to bestow all her gifts on one individual or class of 

 animals, and she never leaves any entirely destitute. For instance, the serpent, 

 having no limbs whatever, would seem at first sight to be terribly handicapped ; 

 yet, in the language of the late Professor Owen, 'it can outclimb the monkey, 

 outswim the fish, outlejip the jerboa, and, suddenly loosing the close coils of its 

 crouching spiral, it can spring into the air and seize the bird on the wing.' ' Here 

 we have the spiral spring in nature before it was devised by man. 



Flying animals seem to conform remarkably to this law. Thus we have birds, 

 like the penguin, which dive and swim, but cannot fly ; others, like the gannet, 

 which dive, swim, fly, and walk; others, like the ostrich, which run, but can 

 neither fly nor swim ; and numberless kinds which can fly well, but have only 

 slight pedestrian powers. 



Man, unaided by mechanisms, can, as we have seen, walk, run, swim, dive, and 

 jump, and perform many remarkable feats ; but for flying in the air he is absolutely 

 unfitted. All his attempts (and there have been many) have up to the present 

 been unsuccessful, whether or not he has availed himself of mechanical aids to his 



' Pettigrew on Animal Locomotion. 



3 K 2 



