FEBEUAKr 2, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



179 



derived from the winds of heaven. This 

 was an immense advance and marked the 

 beginning of that wonderful civilization 

 which slowly followed. The animal king- 

 dom was brought into service for the vari- 

 ous functions of land distribution, and the 

 ship which could be sailed and guided made 

 every waterway subservient to man's re- 

 quirements. Early in this period also he 

 learned to express his ideas by symbols or 

 written words, and thus was enabled to 

 transmit his thoughts by the same agencies 

 that transported his possessions. 



This leads to a fact of history which 

 seems to me not merely significant, but pro- 

 foundly impressive. With the subjection 

 of animals and the use of wind-propelled 

 vessels, both of which achievements reached 

 a high degree of perfection in the unknown 

 past, the means of transportation, broadly 

 speaking, remained unchanged and unaug- 

 mented until almost down to the present 

 time. Long before other agencies of con- 

 veyance were dreamed of, while ox and 

 horse, oar and sail, were the only means of 

 transport, the race had occupied most of 

 the habitable globe and reached high levels 

 of national greatness. Strong governments 

 were established, va.st populations engaged 

 in varied pursuits, and opulent cities 

 crowded with every luxury. The institu- 

 tions of society had acquired strength and 

 permanence, the arts of leisure and refine- 

 ment had approached the limits of perfec- 

 tion, and inductive science had laid firm 

 grasp on the .secrets of nature. Great in- 

 ventions and discoveries had widened the 

 fields of activity, furnished the means and 

 incentive for multiplied vocations, and 

 opened up in every direction alluring vistas 

 of advancement. In a word, there was the 

 developed and splendid civilization of only 

 little more than threescore years ago, be- 

 fore any new or difi'erent motive power was 

 utilized for production or distribution. 



To my mind it is a matter of fascinating 



import that the long procession of progress 

 down to the century just ended was condi- 

 tioned by and dependent upon agencies of 

 transportation which were themselves es- 

 sentially unprogressive and incapable of 

 important betterment. True, there were 

 minor modifications from time to time in 

 the line of mechanical adjustment, but the 

 general methods employed, and the results 

 obtained, showed no marked improvement 

 or material alteration from those applied 

 in the earliest days of commerce. Reduced 

 to the forms in ordinary use, there were at 

 the last as at the first the beast of burden 

 on land and the oar and sail on water. 

 Yet thus hampered and restricted in the 

 means of transportation, which is the basis 

 of all development, there was built up in 

 the long process of years the varied and 

 advanced civilization which the last cen- 

 tury inherited. 



Then all at once, as it were, into and 

 through this social and industrial struc- 

 ture, so highly organized, so complex in 

 character, so vast in its ramifications, yet 

 so adjusted and adapted to the fixed limita- 

 tions of animal power, was thrust the new 

 mode of conveyance by mechanical force, 

 the sudden wonder of transportation by 

 steam. The advent of this new and mar- 

 velous agency was the greatest and most 

 transforming event in the history of man- 

 kind. It wrought an immediate and rad- 

 ical change in the elemental need of society, 

 the means of distribution. The primary 

 function was altered both in essence and 

 in relations. The conditions of commercial 

 intercourse were abruptly and fundamen- 

 tally altered, and a veritable new world of 

 energy and opportunity invited the con- 

 quest of the race. 



No other triumph over the forces of na- 

 ture compares with this in its influence 

 upon human environment. It has directly 

 and powerfully affected the direction and 

 volume of commercial currents, the location 



