IV. INDUSTRIAL ARTS.
Closely following painting comes black and white art in various forms, either reproductive or original work, and it is difficult to discriminate between fine art and handicraft in the many processes employed. Engraving on metal has long been known, and steel was considered an especially valuable method of reproducing paintings until within a generation. Etching is another old form of black and white work, and is still popular, though less so than formerly. Wood engraving during this century has passed through many stages of development, and in the illustrations of books and magazines has been brought to a high standing as a fine art. It is still used in many ways, but all those processes that require line work by hand are being superseded by the photo-type processes, of which there are many kinds. The making of plates or blocks for printing required skilled hand work, and the engravers and wood-cutters were necessarily artists themselves, so that while they were copying the work of others they were also producing works of art themselves. The plates and prints were, therefore, valuable and expensive, and, as modern haste grew more and more to demand cheap quick work, the old careful style of working gave way to mechanical methods of greater speed. With the development of photography and its application to the engraver’s art, while a certain individual artistic character in the work was lost, the actual copying of painting in all the details of light, shade, and half tones has been carried to a high degree of perfection. By what is known as photogravure, every tiny brush mark and every different tint of color is reproduced with scientific accuracy in black and white. This is accomplished by having a photograph of the painting taken on a gelatine film, which is suspended in a bath of acid in the line of an electric current. This current, playing over a sheet of copper, sets free the molecules of metal that are deposited upon the film, and filling all the little inequalities of the surface, produce what is practically a cast of the photograph in copper. The plate, thus secured, is gone over by hand and finished here and there with engraver’s tools, and from this prints may be duplicated to any extent. In engraved plates the design is cut into the metal, incised lines being either drawn by hand with a sharp point, called “dry point” work, or eaten in by acids, the remaining surface of the plate being protected from the acid by a greasy film. In wood-cutting, the blocks show a reverse process, the design being left standing in fine lines, while the remaining surface is cut away, so that a wood-cut is in reality a carving in low relief. The modern electrotype processes produce a similar result on a metal block by the action of acid, a method capable of most speedy work and therefore in demand among the multitude of daily publications illustrating current events. Of course these hasty results can scarcely be called fine art, but they are developments of artistic industries, calculated to meet certain needs of our busy civilization.
PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEW OF NEW YORK CITY AND HUDSON RIVER, TAKEN FROM 26TH STORY OF PARK ROW BUILDING.
For more artistic effects, various forms of lithography have given beautiful results. This valuable process was accidentally discovered in 1796, by a young Bohemian, Aloys Senefelder, of Prague. Desiring to write a list, and having no paper, he scrawled on a fine stone floor tile a few words, and later on, coming to remove them, he bethought him of an experiment with acid on the stone. This he tried, finding the stone eaten away all around his writing, leaving that raised in sufficient relief to print from, the lettering being done with a greasy writing substance that repelled the acid. Later experiments proved that the eating away of the stone was not necessary if the design were made with an oily material and the rest of the surface kept moist with a weak solution of acid. A greasy printing ink being applied would stick only to the oily design and not to the acidulated surface, which process made possible the printing from flat stones, which were not so liable to wear out as the relief designs. Senefelder died in 1824, living long enough to see his invention in use throughout the world, although of course he could not know the improvements that photography would bring. On the centennial anniversary of this great discovery in 1896, exhibitions of lithographic works were held in London and Paris, and the possibilities and developments shown. Mr. James McNeill Whistler has made many very interesting experiments with it, as have also Mr. Joseph Pennell and Mr. Hubert Herkomer. The latter has made innumerable experiments and inventions in his busy artistic career, and has just recently perfected an improvement on lithography which he calls “plate printing,” and which has been dubbed by the irreverent the “Herkotype” process. It is simply painting in a peculiar oily ink on a metal plate, which, while the ink is moist, is dusted over with a fine powder which adheres to every brush mark on the surface. One ingredient of this powder is a metal that is electrically conductible, and, after the excess of powder is brushed off, the plate, with what remains sticking on the oily surface, is placed in an electrotype bath. The copper deposited thereon by the electric current hardens and forms a negative of the original painting, which can be stripped from the plate and used in a printing-press, giving an absolutely faithful reproduction of the artist’s handiwork. A similar process, called “algraphy,” has been invented by Mr. Scholz, of Mayence, who has developed the possibilities of aluminum for plate work, the advantage of this material over stone or other metal being its extreme lightness. These processes are especially valuable to artists who can work in black and white, as their own original conception is perfectly reproduced without the possibility of misconception by some copyist, as exists where a painting is interpreted by an etcher or engraver.
Of the new processes or improvements on the old, that have arisen because of the discovery of photography, it may be said their name is legion. Photography itself is rapidly being developed into a fine art, and has become one of the most important factors of modern existence. It combines science, art, and industry, and is equally necessary to all these occupations. While it is difficult to state what was the first attempt that led to the suggestion of photography, it may be supposed the experiments of the Swedish scientist Scheele were among the first. He found that the action of the sun’s ray blackened silver chloride, and others experimenting after him, at the beginning of the century, had glimmering ideas of the possibility of a new art. As has so often happened with the dawning of some great idea, some new appreciation of a great natural law, the thought was working in many minds, and the discovery seemed to be almost simultaneous in several places. As early as 1802 Wedgwood published in the “Journal of the Royal Institute” an “account of a method of copying paintings on glass and of making profiles by the agency of light on nitrate of silver, with some remarks by Sir Humphry Davy.” These gentlemen were, however, unable to fix the impressions they procured, and a Frenchman, De Niepce, seems to have been the first to succeed in this direction. In 1826, learning that M. Louis Jacques Daguerre was experimenting on the same lines, he conferred with him and they formed a partnership. The latter seems to have been the more businesslike of the two, and the process they evolved became known as the “Daguerreotype.” De Niepce died in 1833, and Daguerre continued the partnership with his son Isidore, making many improvements, and becoming really the pioneer of modern photography. The extent of advance may be calculated from Daguerre’s own remark, that “a landscape requires seven or eight hours to be photographed, but a single statue or monument, if strongly lighted, can be taken in about three hours.” Comparing this with the instantaneous camera work of to-day, that gives us the lifelike moving figures of the kinetoscope, will illustrate the change wrought in two thirds of a century. The earliest portrait work was slow and tedious, the first portrait in New York probably being produced by Dr. Draper, the scientist, although the celebrated Professor Morse was vastly interested in the new science or art, and advanced its cause in this country.
From the beginning of photographic experiments, the greatest desire has been felt to photograph in color, and numberless attempts with more or less success have been made, but the processes are mainly slow and very expensive. A new method of photo-printing in color, however, has recently developed very artistic possibilities. This is accomplished by means of three plates, one for each of the three primary colors; the negative having been made and the plate prepared for printing in each color, the inks of each color are applied separately. One printing produces a red impression, directly on this comes a yellow impression, and on top of that is put a blue; and as all gradations of color are composed of various proportions of these three primary tints, the “overlaying” of the three inks produces a picture containing all the variety of the original subject. A still more recent discovery makes an impression upon a glass plate that gives all three colors on the same plate; but this process is a secret, and is too new to be classed among the successes of industrial art as yet.
One of the later and more notable uses of photography is found in its application to the purposes of astronomy, an evolution in modern science, which, although still in its infancy, has already produced wonderful results. About the middle of the century photographs of the moon were secured by Warren De la Rue and other astronomers, which greatly facilitated studies of the earth’s satellite, and these were followed by photographs of the sun and the sun’s corona during eclipse. It was not, however, until Professor Henry of the Smithsonian Institute originated the idea of uniting the camera with the telescope that the marvelous possibilities of stellar photography were discovered. It is not too much to say that this discovery has revolutionized the science of astronomy, extending the field of human observation into the realm of the infinite. By the aid of clockwork attachments, the telescope is made to follow the apparent motion of the star to which it may be directed, throughout the night, if desired, and the sensitive photographic plate is exposed to the action of light during a corresponding period. “Each image, however faint, has a comparatively long time on the sensitive surface, and therefore exerts a cumulative action.” The result is that stars are pictured by the camera which no human eye has ever seen. It is estimated that the camera has revealed double the number of stars discovered by the most powerful telescopes. In 1887, at a convention of astronomers held in Paris, it was resolved to photograph the entire skies, with the purpose of making a new stellar atlas to include the latest discoveries among the heavenly hosts. With this object the firmament was charted in squares, and each observatory of importance throughout the world was assigned certain of these squares to work on. This monumental labor is still going on, and it will necessarily be extended well into the first quarter of the twentieth century.
The epoch-marking paper of Dr. Röntgen, in which he announced the discovery of the X-ray, was made public in the latter part of 1895. It immediately attracted the attention of the scientific world, and, since that date, endless successions of experiments have been made with the marvelous ray in all civilized countries. The X-ray produces no noticeable effect on the retina of the eye, and we therefore acquire knowledge of it through indirect agencies. One of these agencies is the photographic plate, on which, under certain conditions, the ray acts somewhat in the same manner as does a ray of light. It is not a ray of light, in the ordinary sense, as it penetrates opaque bodies which light cannot traverse. Just what it is scientists are not yet ready to state, but its discoverer defines it as “a longitudinal vibration of luminiferous ether.” This vibration will traverse many substances opaque to light, as wood, paper, vegetable and animal tissues and fabrics, as wool, cotton, silk, etc.; and, if then directed upon a photographic plate, will produce an image there. The resulting picture is not of the object traversed by the ray, but of any intervening object which it does not pass through. As a consequence, the picture is the image, so to speak, of a shadow, and, hence has been called a “shadowgraph.” To illustrate, if the ray is directed through a human body, it will give a “shadowgraph” of the bones, or of a bullet or piece of metal, if such foreign substance be encountered on its way. Again, the ray will traverse a diamond and cast no shadow, but it will not pass through the finest imitation ever made, the “shadowgraph” showing the manufactured article.
THE CENTURY’S ADVANCE IN SURGERY
By J. MADISON TAYLOR, M.D., and J. H. GIBBON, M.D.,
Surgeon in Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospitals.
At the Dawn of the Century.—In the year 1579 the celebrated French surgeon, Ambroise Paré, probably the greatest of his day, in completing his work on “Chirurgery,” made the following statement, which to us of to-day is both amusing and pathetic. He says: “For God is my witness, and all good men know, that I have labored fifty years with all care and pains in the illustration and amplification of Chirurgery; and that I have so certainly touched the work whereat I aimed that antiquity may seem to have nothing wherein it may exceed as beside the glory of invention, nor posterity anything left but a certain small hope to add some things.” This great man had scarcely passed away when the practice of surgery of his day was a thing of the past, due to the realization of that “certain small hope” which he allowed as possible to posterity. Every reader, when he reflects upon the crude surgery practiced in those days, when the operations were those of necessity and not election,—that is, were done for injuries and not for disease, done to relieve and not to cure; when he remembers that not only antiseptics but also anæsthetics were unknown, must be filled with sympathy for this old gentleman, and wonder what he would think now were he to see what progress posterity has made and is still making.
It is not our purpose, however, to carry our researches so far back as Paré’s time, but to begin with our own century and bring before the reader the advances in surgery since the day of our grandfathers.
In the beginning of this century surgery was practiced by many great men, men who did not enjoy the self-satisfaction of their predecessor, Paré, but who accomplished much by constant endeavor and faithful application to advance this art and science. They, too, realized manifold “hopes,” and their children and grandchildren have moved on, and to-day are still pressing forward in the line of invention and discovery. But to us, the art of an hundred years ago appears widely different from that of our day. Anæsthesia had not then been discovered, no germ theory had been evolved, and, consequently, no such thing as antiseptic or aseptic surgery was known. The abdomen was opened for disease only, and rarely; and brain surgery consisted solely in trepanning for fractures of the skull. Surgery was not regarded as a specialty, but every surgeon was also an obstetrician and a practitioner of general medicine. Outside of the treatment of broken bones, dislocations, gunshot wounds and injuries, the surgeon at that time operated for strangulated hernia, for stone in the bladder—“cutting for stone,” as it was called; for cataract and for cancer. Dentistry was just beginning to be taken up as a specialty, and all medical men extracted teeth, and many filled their cavities. Ophthalmic surgery consisted largely in operations for cataract, and was done by the general surgeon. One department of the surgeon’s education at this time was well attended to, and that was his anatomic knowledge. Our bodies were the same then as now; and although the surgeon dared not trespass in anatomical fields which are familiar ground to the student of to-day, he did study the body after death, and was quite as well informed regarding the gross anatomy of the human body as the surgeon of to-day; and, had anæsthesia been known to him, he would probably have accomplished nearly all that was done during the middle of the century by his successors.
During the first quarter of the century no great advance was made in surgery, that is, nothing revolutionizing; but many minds and hands were at work perfecting old methods of operation and devising new ones. They had to trust to whiskey and opium to control the pain of the patient, and consequently operations requiring much time in their performance were avoided when possible, and, when necessary, had to be performed with such rapidity that the essential object aimed at was often missed. The patient was given a large dose of laudanum and a huge drink of whiskey or brandy, and was then held or tied on the table while the surgeon proceeded with his work. One can readily understand the torturing pain the poor patient had to endure, and the hurried and often unsatisfactory operation which the surgeon had to perform. The endurance of pain was not the worst part of the patient’s lot, for afterward he ran the greatest risk of blood-poisoning and gangrene, which were common complications in those days. It was the rarest thing for even the simplest operation wounds to heal by “primary union,” as it was called,—that is, without the formation of pus. Every wounded surface was expected to go through a certain amount of suppuration. Many patients lost their lives from compound fractures of their bones; and a compound fracture, that is, where there was a wound connecting the seat of fracture with the skin, usually meant many months in bed, and very often the loss of the limb.
Excepting for the purposes of removing a fœtus from the womb (the so-called Cæsarian operation, because Cæsar was from “his mother’s womb untimely ripped”), the abdominal cavity was practically never opened, and when it was the patient nearly always died. The operation for the radical cure of hernia was seldom resorted to, excepting when strangulation of the intestine necessitated operative interference to save the patient’s life. During the latter part of the eighteenth century the quacks, calling themselves “rupture cutters,” were not scarce; but the great mortality of their practice produced a wholesome fear among the people. The operation was so often fatal that most of the best surgeons would only perform it under unusually urgent circumstances. What caused the deaths was peritonitis, or gangrene of the intestine, and not the method of operating; for at this time nearly every method of operating had been devised that was in vogue fifty years later.
Bone surgery, the treatment of fractures, dislocations, and diseases of the bones, was greatly improved in the first half of the century, this subject receiving more attention at the hands of surgical writers than any other.
SURGICAL OPERATING ROOM, HOWARD HOSPITAL, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Anæsthesia.—Anæsthesia may, certainly from the patient’s point of view, be looked upon as the greatest advancement ever made in surgery. It was great not only for the reason that it gave the patient absolute unconsciousness during the time of the operation, but because it enabled the surgeon to work with greater exactness and less hurry. The conception of the anæsthetic state did not, however, come into being for the first time in our century, for, like most great ideas, it agitated the minds of medical and scientific men for centuries. Gross tells us that Theodoric, in the thirteenth century, recommended the inhalation of a certain combination of opium, hemlock, and other vegetable derivatives for the purpose of producing sleep, and that in India similar combinations were for centuries in use. It is needless, however, to say that the effect produced was nothing like that following the use of nitrous oxide, “laughing gas,” ether, or chloroform, and that their use never became general. Toward the close of the last century Sir Humphry Davy and others performed repeated experiments with nitrous oxide gas, but finally gave up in despair. In the early part of our own century several methods of producing insensibility to pain were recommended, such as pressure on nerves and bleeding to the degree of producing unconsciousness, but none of them was ever sufficiently successful to render their adoption general; and it remained for a New England dentist, Dr. Horace Wells, in 1844, to first use satisfactorily upon himself and his patients the complete state of unconsciousness produced by nitrous oxide gas. This poor man, however, failed signally when he endeavored to demonstrate its powers before a body of medical men, and was subjected to the most unwarranted ridicule. However, a pupil of this man, another dentist, named Morton, two years later, experimented with ether, and finally proved upon himself and on patients the wonderful power of the vapor. He exhibited his discovery at the Massachusetts General Hospital at Boston, where Dr. Warren performed an operation upon a patient etherized by Dr. Morton. The fame of this man and his great discovery spread rapidly over the continent and into the Eastern Hemisphere, and in 1847 Sir James Y. Simpson in Edinburgh discovered the anæsthetic powers of chloroform. These two agents, ether and chloroform, have existed as rivals for professional favor for nearly half a century, one being more popular and more generally used in one country and the other in another. There is, however, a field for the use of both, the operator choosing the anæsthetic to suit the individual case. In our own country ether is more generally used in the North and East and chloroform in the South and West. Chloroform has had more deaths attributed to its use, but in many cases is a much safer anæsthetic than ether. It is most amusing to observe the attitude of the so-called conservative surgeon toward the use of anæsthetics soon after their discovery; this is particularly true of their employment in obstetric practice, many eminent obstetricians maintaining that the parturient woman was intended to suffer, and referring triumphantly to the Bible for authority. It is, however, needless to say that although many men were at first uneasy in the use of these new-found agents, those who did not take advantage of their wonderful powers found themselves rapidly becoming out of date and deserted by their patients, who preferred unconsciousness to the older method of using opium and whiskey.
Notwithstanding the great step made by the introduction of ether and chloroform, the medical man is to-day still dissatisfied and is continually endeavoring to discover some agent or combination of agents which will produce insensibility to pain without unconsciousness and without the slight danger and the uncomfortable after effects of chloroform and ether. An ideal anæsthetic then must be a local anæsthetic, one that will render the field of operation insensible and be without the slightest danger to the patient.
Local Anæsthesia.—At the beginning of our century freezing with ice alone, or with ice and salt, was the only method employed for producing local insensibility. Freezing as a local anæsthetic was, however, not extensively used until fifty years later, when Dr. Richardson of London showed the anæsthetic effect of spraying the surface of the tissues with ether. During the late sixties this method of freezing became quite popular for producing local anæsthesia for small operations such as extraction of teeth, removing nails, opening abscesses, etc., and occasionally was employed for more protracted operations, Cæsarian section having been performed a number of times by the aid of this agent. The rhigolene spray was found later to be more satisfactory than ether in many respects, and the two together were frequently used.
Another freezing agent which is now used very extensively and has entirely supplanted those just mentioned is the chloride of ethyl. This, when applied to the dry skin, produces in a few seconds complete freezing, and renders the surface comparatively painless for many of the minor surgical operations.
The properties of cocaine as a local anæsthetic were known thirty years ago, but it was not until 1884 that Dr. Kohler of Germany demonstrated its practical applicability. To-day most of the operations on the eye, nose, and throat are performed under the pain prevention afforded by this drug, and in general surgery it has an extensive field, being found satisfactory where freezing is inapplicable or general anæsthesia not desired, as, for instance, in removing small tumors, splinters, ingrowing nails, etc. In the eye, nose, and throat it is applied simply in solution to the mucous membrane, but where anæsthesia of the skin is desired, it is necessary to inject it under the skin with a hypodermic syringe. When used in strong solutions this remedy is dangerous, and it has lately been shown that weaker solutions when used in larger quantities are just as satisfactory and less dangerous.
A recent substitute for cocaine is eucaine; but, although less dangerous, it is less satisfactory and not harmless to the tissues themselves.
Antiseptic and Aseptic Surgery.—Excepting the introduction of anæsthesia, no greater step has ever been made in surgery than that which was brought into use by the antiseptic and aseptic method of treating wounds. It is now about thirty years since Sir Joseph Lister, believing in the so-called “germ theory,” evolved by Pasteur, Virchow, and others, advocated the use of agents which were destructive to germ life in the treatment of wounds. At first the great antiseptic, and the one used most generally by Lister, was carbolic acid, which was applied to the wound in solution, and used as a spray during the performance of operations, to protect the wound from infection by germs in the atmosphere. It was not long, however, before it was discovered that the danger lay not in the atmosphere but in the skin of the patient and in the hands of the surgeon and in the condition of his instruments and dressings; and to these sources attention was given with results known to us all. Other antiseptics, such as bichloride of mercury and boric acid, afterward came into use, and within the past ten years the first of these two has largely supplanted carbolic acid, and is the one reliable and practical destroyer of germs. The antiseptic treatment of wounds was probably not in full swing until about 1885–1890, and was quickly followed by the more recent aseptic method. These two can, however, never be successfully separate, as the latter is dependent entirely upon the former; that is, in order to render the field of operation and the hands of the surgeon aseptic, the antiseptics must be used. Asepsis means without poisonous germs, and, as applied to surgical treatment, it is essential that, after the instruments, the dressings, the patient’s skin, the surgeon’s and his assistants’ hands have been thoroughly cleaned with soap and water and rendered free from germs, there be use of antiseptic solutions in the wound or on the dressings. This has been a great step forward, this discovery that it was in the skin that the germs lurked, and that soap and water and a scrubbing brush were as necessary as antiseptics. Few surgeons to-day employ antiseptic solutions in wounds unless the wound itself is already infected, when it becomes necessary. In wounds which are clean and made by the surgeon under aseptic conditions, no antiseptic drug is required which may indeed be actually harmful, for these chemicals which destroy germs are not altogether harmless to healthy tissue, particularly when used in strong solution.
The discovery of anæsthesia and the promulgation of the germ theory of inflammation, together with the subsequent perfection of the means of destroying microbes, all within the memory of many now living, have revolutionized surgery to such an extent that the surgeon reaches fearlessly into regions which before were impracticable, and undertakes operations which were never even dreamed of a generation ago. One can readily imagine that no surgeon would care to undertake, and no patient would endure, the agony of an operation lasting for several hours without an anæsthetic; and that it must have been only an immediate and certain danger of death that compelled a surgeon, in pre-antiseptic days, to open an abdomen or brain when he realized the great probability of subsequent inflammation and death.
Let us look at some of the individual advances of surgery since the introduction of anæsthesia and of the use of germ-destroying agents, considering first, simple fractures.
Of Simple Fractures.—Anæsthesia was the means of permitting surgeons to “set” fractures in a satisfactory manner and without pain; and the use of antiseptics has prevented many of these fractures from becoming compound fractures. Lately there has been a change in the general treatment of fractures which is proving a great advancement. Formerly it was the custom to keep not only the broken bone itself perfectly quiet on a splint until union had taken place, but also to immobilize all the neighboring structures, joints, muscles, and tendons. This meant that when the limb was taken off the splint, not only would the bone be “solid,” but there was also a tendency to fixation of the muscles and joints, so that it took the patient as long to get back the use of the limb as it did to unite the broken bone. This is now obviated in many fractures by beginning both the passive and active motion of the neighboring muscles and joints at a much earlier period than heretofore; in fact, in many fractures, such as those near the wrist, by never allowing these adjacent structures to get stiff at all, but keeping up the passive motion (while the fragments are held firmly together) from the very first dressing. In other more complicated and serious fractures where motion is contra-indicated, the use of carefully applied massage prevents largely the stiffness and the wasting of the muscles which results from long confinement on splints.
Compound Fractures.—In pre-antiseptic days compound fractures were one of the greatest causes of the amputation of limbs; and yet, to-day, these same breaks, which twenty-five years ago would have cost the patient his limb, are, by means of antiseptics, rendered aseptic and converted into a simple fracture by the closing of the wound, and the part is not only saved but fully restored to function.
Bone Diseases.—Diseases of the bones, as inflammation, caries, and necrosis, are now dealt with very differently from of old. The diseased structures are now thoroughly removed; and the inflammation which at one time kept the patient in misery and danger for a long time is subdued from the start.
Osteotomy.—This term, which means the division of a bone, is generally applied to the correction of deformities, such as bow-legs. This operation fifty years ago was not frequently resorted to, and then only in severe cases, the milder ones being left alone or treated with braces, which at best could do little more than prevent increase in deformity. When the operation was performed on the bone, it was then divided, usually with a saw. The operation nowadays for this condition is what is called subcutaneous osteotomy; that is, the wound made is only as large as the chisel used for severing the bone, about one half inch, and owing to our knowledge of microbes and our means of destroying them and preventing their ravages, hundreds of legs are made straight every year which a generation ago could not have been safely touched.
CLINICAL AMPHITHEATRE. GARRETT MEMORIAL BUILDING, PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Amputations.—The first successful amputation at the hip joint, for either injury or disease, in the United States, was done in 1806 by Dr. Brasheur; the next was not accomplished until 1824. As late as 1882, the great American surgeon, Gross, wrote in his “System of Surgery:” “To no operation that can be performed on the human body is the oft-repeated maxim, ‘Ad extremos morbus extrema remedia,’ more justly applicable than to amputation at the hip joint. The operation may become necessary both on account of disease and accident; but it is of so formidable a nature and so fraught with danger, that it should never be undertaken unless the patient has no other chance of escape. The great risk which attends it is chiefly due to shock, loss of blood, suppuration, erysipelas, and pyaemia.... Under highly favorable circumstances, much of the enormous wound may unite by the first intention; but, in general, more or less suppuration takes place, and in some instances the discharge is so copious as to lead to fatal exhaustion. The greatest danger of all, however, is the occurrence of pyaemia, or secondary abscess, especially in amputations at the hip joint in consequence of injury, as a compound fracture or a gunshot wound.” This gives the attitude of the profession toward this operation a little more than fifteen years ago, and the dangers which attended its performance. Let us add that the mortality at this time may be expressed in the following figures. (Dr. F. C. Sheppard prepared these statistics for Dr. Ashhurst.) Of 613 cases in which the results are known, “237 occurred in army practice, of which 30 recovered and 207, or 87.3 per cent died; 71 were performed in civil life for injury, with the result of 47 deaths, or a mortality of 66.1 per cent; 261 were practiced for disease, with 105 deaths, or a mortality rate of 40.2 per cent; and of 44 amputations for unknown causes 34, or 77.2 per cent were fatal.”
In 1890, Dr. John A. Wyeth of New York introduced his “bloodless method” of amputation at the hip joint, and he recently reports 69 operations performed after this manner by himself and others, in which there were 11 deaths, 5 of which occurred in cases of extreme injury, where the patients had lost a large amount of blood and vigor before operation. In 40 cases the operation was done for malignant growth, and 4 deaths occurred, 10 per cent. In 22 the amputation was made for inflammatory disease of the bone, and 3 died, 13.6 per cent. One has but to contrast these statistics to understand what antiseptic methods and recent improvements in the control of hemorrhage have done to lessen the mortality of amputations. The still more recent use of salt solution injected into the circulation of patients suffering from profuse hemorrhage has lately been the means of saving many lives which would have otherwise succumbed to the loss of blood and the shock subsequent to injury and operation. As illustrating the contrast between the septic and antiseptic methods, let us consider the surgery of our Civil War and compare with that of to-day, and we shall see the enormous differences in methods, and particularly in economy of limbs and organs as well as mortality.
PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL, PHILADELPHIA.
Hemorrhage.—The arrest and control of hemorrhage has greatly improved within the past twenty-five years. The making of an aseptic wound does away largely with the much dreaded secondary hemorrhage of a generation ago, by preventing suppuration, which is usually the cause of secondary hemorrhage. The clumsy and complicated apparatus of former days for controlling hemorrhage has been superseded by the use of the Esmarch rubber tourniquet, the neat hemostatic forceps, and the sterile animal ligature. No surgeon thinks to-day of applying a silk ligature to a blood vessel and allowing it to hang out of the wound until it separates, so that in case of secondary bleeding he could readily find the vessel; but he applies an absorbable ligature, usually of catgut, which is sterile, and which is entirely absorbed by the tissues after it has done its work. Much suffering has been saved patients by the introduction of absorbable materials for ligation of vessels and sewing of wounds. Formerly one of the great dreads of wounds was the “taking out of the stitches.” To-day where the wounds are not inflamed this is little complained of, and where the animal suture is used there is no discomfort whatever. Many means have, during the past century, been employed for the resuscitation of patients suffering from profuse hemorrhage and shock. The idea of injecting into the veins of the patient thus affected blood from another person or from an animal is not new, and has at times been quite successful. The most generally used method was to draw the blood from a healthy person or animal and inject it into the vein of the patient with a syringe: however, so-called “direct transfusion” was also employed, and consisted in pumping the blood direct from the vein of the healthy individual into that of the patient. Other materials than blood have been injected into the blood vessels of persons suffering from great loss of blood, notably milk. All of these methods have been put upon the shelf, never to be called into use again. The ingenuity of the nineteenth century suggested the substitution of a solution of common salt for blood and, to-day, the intra-venous injection of normal salt solution saves hundreds of lives. The solution is made to resemble as closely as possible the liquid portion of the human blood (the liquor sanguinis), especially as to specific gravity; and as it is always sterilized by boiling before being used, it is free from all the dangers which accompany the transfusion of one person’s blood into another. No well-appointed operating room is without its transfusion apparatus and its salt solution ready for use.
Wounds.—Reference to the remarks on asepsis and antisepsis will show the reader that the treatment of wounds has undergone a complete change in the past quarter of a century; but probably the modern treatment of gunshot wounds illustrates this better than anything else. Until 1885, only six cases were recorded where the abdominal cavity was opened for gunshot wounds, but since that time hundreds of cases have been treated in this way every year. The injuries were formerly considered almost certainly fatal, and if the intestine was injured the patient assuredly died. Now the abdomen is opened, hemorrhage controlled, wounds—often to the number of six or eight or even thirty or more—of the intestines closed, or an injured section of the intestines removed and the abdominal cavity cleansed and closed, with many favorable terminations to make the operation not only a justifiable one, but one of necessity and safety. There is no comparison with the present-day results of gunshot wounds of either abdomen or chest and those of a generation ago. It is the duty of the surgeon, in case of gunshot wound of abdomen, to open, explore, and repair, whereas formerly it was considered the part of wisdom to leave the patient without radical treatment and only to make him comfortable with opiates. Thus cases of damage to the intestines and viscera did occasionally recover in pre-antiseptic days, but it was the rarest occurrence.
What has been said of gunshot wounds applies also to stab wounds of the chest and abdomen.
The Alimentary Canal.—Probably the surgery of no portion of the body, unless it be the brain, has been so much improved during the past fifteen years as that of the alimentary canal. The esophagus or gullet is now opened with impunity for both disease and injury. This organ is not only approachable through the neck but also through the back part of the chest, by resection of the ribs; and the latter operation is frequently made necessary by the lodgment of foreign bodies,—buttons, false teeth, etc.—so low down in the esophagus that they cannot be reached through the mouth or through an opening made in the neck.
The Stomach.—This organ, which was formerly a forbidden field to the surgeon, is now subjected to the most varied surgical operations, from simple opening for the purpose of removing a foreign body or establishing a fistulous tract to the resection of a portion of it or to its complete resection, as has been successfully accomplished several times within the past year or two for malignant disease. The removal of the smaller end of the stomach for cancer is now a frequent operation. During the war of the rebellion there were sixty-four cases of wounds of the stomach, and only one recovered. In over six hundred and fifty cases of wounds of the intestines there were recorded only five cases of recovery from wounds of the small and fifty-nine from wounds of the large intestine.
The Intestinal Tract.—What has been said of the stomach applies also to this portion of the alimentary canal. No surgeon can nowadays call himself such if he is incapable of removing a diseased portion of intestine, it may be only a few inches or several feet, and bringing the dividing ends of remaining intestine into such apposition that healing takes place and the function is restored. Until recently, when the means of anastomosing the intestinal canal were perfected, it was the custom of the surgeon to bring the severed ends of the intestines into the abdominal incision and suture them there, establishing in this way an artificial anus with all its accompanying discomforts. This was certainly better than allowing the patient to perish from his disease, but how infinitely preferable is the present method of bringing the healthy cut ends of the intestine into apposition and reëstablishing the calibre. It is this operation which has so much reduced the mortality of intra-abdominal injuries, gunshot wounds, stabs, etc., and has made hundreds of sufferers from intestinal cancer either well again or comfortable for years. The perfection of the operation of joining one part of the alimentary canal to another has been due largely to the ingenuity and perseverance of American surgeons, who have devoted years to experimentation and practice upon the cadaver and upon animals.
The Kidneys.—The kidney has not been behind the other organs of the body in reaping the benefits of modern surgery. The first case of removal of the kidney was done in 1869 by Simon, and was successful. It was done only after a number of dogs were operated on successfully to demonstrate that life and health are compatible with only one kidney. Since this time the removal of a kidney for disease or injury, when its fellow of the opposite side is healthy and performing its function, has been looked upon as an entirely justifiable operation. The surgery of this organ has lately so far advanced, however, that many kidneys are now treated by more curative operations. In 1880 the first operation was done for the removal of a stone from the kidney, an operation which now nearly every surgeon of much experience has performed. The operation for the fixation of a floating kidney, which is now so common, was first done in 1881. Now, since Simon’s bold experiment the lives of between two thousand and three thousand persons have been thus saved who had otherwise certainly died.
The Bladder.—For generations the bladder has been considered a legitimate field for surgery, but modern methods and technique have greatly extended the domain. One of the greatest advances in bladder surgery has been the crushing of stone and its immediate removal. Until 1825 the treatment of all stones in the bladder was their removal through an incision made in the organ. At that time Civiale first performed the operation of passing a bladed instrument into the bladder and crushing the stone, then allowing the patient to pass it subsequently at urination. The operation became quite popular with certain surgeons as early as the middle of the century. The cutting operation has, however, never been entirely put aside, and even to-day it is, in many cases, the best and only procedure. In 1878 Bigelow, of Boston, devised the method which is now universally used, of crushing the stone and washing it out at once through a silver tube. This was a great stride ahead of the old method.
One of the great difficulties in deciding upon the removal of a kidney has been the trouble of finding out whether the other kidney is doing its work, and this Kelly, of Johns Hopkins University, has done much to overcome in devising his method of examining by looking at the openings of the tubes of the kidneys where they empty into the bladder. If the kidney is performing its function the urine will be seen flowing from its tube into the bladder.
Hernia or Rupture.—Probably the treatment of no condition has received more consideration from the surgeon of the nineteenth century than that of rupture, and it was not until 1891 that an operation was devised, simultaneously by an Italian and an American surgeon, which has proved for itself all that its originators claimed. Hundreds of operative methods have been brought forward for the cure of this troublesome and dangerous condition; but, until the operations of Halstead and Bossini were brought forward, little prospect of an absolute cure could be promised a patient, and the conservative surgeon would only undertake to operate upon very troublesome cases such as could not be controlled by a truss. Now nearly every case of hernia may be looked upon as curable by an operation.
Operative Gynæcology.—The operative treatment of the disease of the female generative organs has been revolutionized in our century, and its revolution has been largely due to American surgeons. The first ovariotomy ever performed was done in Kentucky, by Dr. Ephraim McDowell, in 1809. In the fifties, Marion Sims won great renown for himself and his country by his wonderful ingenuity and boldness in this line of work. The greatest advance here, as in all departments of surgery, has been made since the introduction of antiseptic and aseptic principles. To-day there is no disease or condition which, if seen early enough, cannot be cured, or essentially relieved at the hands of an expert abdominal surgeon. Thousands of women are now saved every year by these means who formerly would have certainly died or remained hopeless invalids.
Appendicitis.—This condition must seem to the ordinary reader to be either a new disease or one much more prevalent than in days gone by, but it is not the case. The cause of this appearance is the fact that in former times the condition was not recognized in its incipiency, and the exact cause of the trouble was unknown. The condition then advanced until it was called typhlitis, peritonitis, and obstruction of the bowels, etc., all of which would to-day occur if the conditions were not recognized early and treatment immediately instituted before the inflammation and infection extended from the appendix to neighboring tissues.
Brain Surgery.—This branch of surgery is practically a triumph of recent years. Formerly the brain was never interfered with except for injury (traumatic), and even then nothing was done excepting for the removal of pressure, as from a piece of depressed bone, and the institution of drainage. To-day the skull is opened for epilepsy; abscesses of the brain are opened and drained successfully, and tumors of the brain are removed, thus not only in numberless instances saving life but—what is equally important—saving the usefulness of the life and mind. The first actual successes in this line are recorded by Bennett and Godlee in 1884, who localized and operated on and ultimately found a tumor. The patient died, but the bold beginning was followed by a number of other surgeons, till this new region for exploration, hitherto untouched, has become a fertile ground for successful efforts. Abscess of the brain, until twenty years ago, was almost invariably fatal. MacEwen in 1879 located an abscess of the brain and begged to be allowed to operate, but was refused by the family of the patient. After the death of the patient he operated precisely as he would have done in life, evacuated the pus and demonstrated that had he been permitted to do so he could have saved life.
Where the cranium is wounded surgeons nowadays will not hesitate to open the skull, secure the bleeding vessels, remove clots, and thus many lives are saved. Even comparatively slight injuries to the skull, where the brain is damaged, involve oftentimes destruction to the arteries and blood is effused, producing such destructive pressure as causes very serious symptoms or even death. In other instances, the results of a blow or a fall without injuring the skull may cause profound damage and subsequent hemorrhage. In all these cases operative interference, now extremely safe and easy, may readily save life. Gunshot wounds of the brain are now only occasionally fatal, provided opportunity offers for prompt and clean operative work. Even where the ball has traversed the entire length of the cerebrum, recovery has followed operation. The results of brain surgery in relieving certain forms of epilepsy are occasionally most brilliant and frequently much relief is afforded. Where the epilepsy is of the character known as focal, and where there is evidence of irritation of the brain, due to a local pressure, whether of the cranial walls or of some new growth within the brain tissue, the removal of these sources of irritation has in many reported instances been most satisfactory. Again, certain cases of protracted headache, so severe as to render life insupportable, have been cured by trepanning the skull. Certain forms of insanity have been modified and relieved where this had followed upon brain injuries. It is of great interest to reflect upon the methods by which students of brain disease are enabled to determine so exactly the location of tumors, abscesses, hemorrhages, clots, scars, and other alterations of tissue giving rise to epilepsy and brain disorders, and which afford no indication of the diseased locality by any changed condition of the surface. In dealing with other parts of the body, if the precise locality of the part to be operated on cannot be at first determined, there is no hesitation in the minds of the surgeons in cutting down upon, and searching for, that which he proposes to remove. In dealing with so delicate an organ as the brain, however, this cannot be permitted; for a variation of the very smallest dimension will sometimes change the manipulations from those of perfect safety to the most fatal results. Our knowledge of the location of the functions of the brain and the areas from whence arise governing influences has been derived almost solely from experiments upon living animals. Among the names of the great pioneers in this direction must be mentioned those of Ferrier and Horseley, of England; Fritsch, Hitzig, and Goltz, of Germany. The researches which have thus opened up a new realm of operative possibility are among the very greatest triumphs in our means of saving life and affording opportunity for relief of the most serious disablements known to modern times.
For illustration of how these studies are pursued, it may be of interest to review the method used by Horseley.
The brain of a monkey having been exposed at the part to be investigated, the poles of a battery are applied over squares one twelfth of an inch in diameter, and all the various movements which occur (if any) are minutely studied. One square having been studied, the next is stimulated, and the results are again noted, and so on from square to square. These movements are then tabulated. For example, all those adjacent squares which, when stimulated, produce movements of the thumb are called the region for representation of the thumb, or “the thumb centre;” and to all those squares which produce movements of the hand, the elbow, the shoulder, or the face, etc., are given corresponding names. In this way the brain has been mapped out, region by region, and the same minute, patient study given to each.
These animals are etherized so that they do not suffer the least pain. Such operations, with few exceptions, even without ether, are not painful. The brain itself can be handled, compressed, cut, or torn without the least pain. A number of cases have already been reported in which a considerable portion of the human brain has been removed by operation, and the patients have been about their ordinary avocations within a week or two.
Studying in this way the brain in the lower animals, it is now possible to get a very fair knowledge of the localization of many of its functions in man.
Moreover, portions of the body can be entirely severed, and, if suitably preserved, can be replaced, and they will adhere and grow as if nothing had happened. When a wound is slow in healing, we now take bits of skin, either from the patient’s own body or provided by the willing family or friends, or even from frogs, and “graft” them on the surface of the wound. They usually adhere, and as enlargement takes place at their margins, they coalesce by one half the time required for healing. Even a large disk of bone, one or two inches in diameter, when removed from the skull, can be so saved and utilized. It is placed in a vessel filled with a warm antiseptic solution, which is again placed in a basin of warm water, and it is the duty of a special assistant to see that the thermometer in this basin shall always mark 100° to 105° Fahr. The bone may be separated from the skull so long as one or two hours, but if properly cared for can be replaced, and will grow fast and fulfill its accustomed but interrupted duty of protecting the brain.
X-RAY PICTURE OF A COMPOUND FRACTURE AND DISLOCATION OF THE FOREARM.
Röntgen Rays.—One of the most recent advances in the art of surgery is the discovery and use of the X-rays. In December, 1895, Professor Röntgen, of Würzburg, announced his discovery, and since then its utility has continually increased, until to-day no large hospital or properly equipped teaching institution, indeed no first-rate surgeon, is without the X-ray apparatus. By its use many doubtful cases of both injury and disease in surgical practice are thus entirely rendered clear. In the diagnosis and treatment of many fractures it is nearly indispensable, showing the exact location of the break and the position of the fragment before and after dressing. Probably in no other condition, unless it be in fractured bones, has the X-ray proved itself of so much value as in the location of foreign bodies lodged in any of the organs or tissues of the body. Before Professor Röntgen’s discovery it was not of infrequent occurrence that an exploratory operation was necessary to positively prove the presence of a foreign body, and even this was at times of necessity a failure. To-day the X-ray picture enables the surgeon to learn the exact location of the foreign body and indicates to him the best point from which it may be attacked. With repeated improvements in apparatus the time of exposure required for making the picture of the part has been greatly reduced. The advantage of this was made manifest when it was discovered that destruction of the skin, the so-called “X-ray burns,” might follow long and repeated exposure to the rays. It is not always necessary to make a plate of the part to be examined, since by simply studying the parts by the eyes through the fluoroscope or the fluoroscopic screen the surgeon can readily see everything that a photographic picture could show him. The fluoroscope or screen is now often used during the operation of removing foreign bodies; through it the surgeon can watch the various steps of his operation, his approach to the foreign body and its final removal.
X-RAY PICTURE OF A DISLOCATED ELBOW.
If the field of its usefulness continues to expand at its present rate, it will not be long before its use as a diagnostic measure will be as valuable to the medical man as it now is to the surgeon.
By such instruments of precision as this, and others less conspicuous, the old elements of intelligent inference and argument by analogy and exclusion are rendered of less value, and a rapid approach is made to scientific exactitude in surgery as well as medicine. All this has attained a far higher quality and scope in the last quarter of this century than in any other period of the world’s history, and we may look to great advances in the coming century, in all life-conserving and remedial measures whereby the race may enjoy a larger measure of relief as well as immunity from the onslaught of disease and the results of accident.
There is shown here for illustration a photographic picture of a limb, taken by the X-ray now growing familiar to every one. It should be borne in mind that while it is a simple matter for the casual observer to note obvious solutions of continuity in bones, or the presence of foreign bodies, this is not the chief item of usefulness to the surgeon, and certainly not to the medical practitioner. A special training is required to study and interpret the findings and appearances of the tissues, their altered relationships, densities, and many other matters entirely insignificant to the uneducated among medical men or laity.
Again, the picture here shown is similar in outline to but a reversal of the shading seen through the fluoroscope by direct vision, when the greatest skill is required in noting the significance of altered states in the denser or softer tissues.
When suits for malpractice are instituted against surgeons it is not to be admitted that the evidence or findings of the “highly intelligent” but not technically skilled witness can have the slightest weight as proving the condition of tissues of which they are very ignorant, not only physiologically but more so pathologically.
PROGRESS OF MEDICINE
By FRANK C. HAMMOND, M.D.,
Instructor in Gynecology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia.
“As a point of history pregnant with valuable deductions, it is good to look back upon the conditions of medicine in former times and find that it has always kept pace with the progress of the physical and moral sciences. Where these, however, have been marked by folly and credulity, medicine has exhibited the same imperfections.”
It is difficult to trace the improvement in successive eras, because they melt into one another by indefinable gradations. During the earliest period it was believed that physic was an art which was supposed to be most mysterious, and it was presumed that the practicers held communion with the world of spirits. The practice of medicine in those days consisted in the usage of agents necessarily unreliable, as, for instance, the word abracadabra hung around the neck as an amulet to chase away the ague, etc.
Much time has been wasted in attempting to portray the first origin of medicine. Bambilla, a surgeon of Vienna, has asserted that Tubal Cain was the inventor of cauterizing instruments, apparatus for reducing fractures, and other instruments for surgical procedures, thus endeavoring to prove that surgery antedated medicine. It is evident that medicine must have had a very early origin, for mankind even in the earliest ages suffered pain and the train of sequences due to exposure, and hence soon discovered a method of alleviation. Their category probably consisted of herbs. Unacquainted, however, with the construction and function of the human economy, practitioners were unable to trace the progress of disease, and the more fatal internal maladies were ascribed to the deities whom they feared. Hence, various superstitious practices would arise and be handed down from one generation to another. We may imagine this to have been the origin of the healing art, and such is nearly its present condition amongst the savages of Africa, Australasia, Polynesia, Sumatra, etc.
Later on, the priests became the physicians, from being the oracles of the divinity whom the people wished to consult. The various remedies were handed down from one to another, as medical science did not exist at that time. Herodotus informs us that even in his time the Babylonians, Chaldeans, and other nations had no physicians. When any one was attacked with disease the patient was carried into the public street, and passers-by who had suffered from a similar affection, or nursed one who had, advised the sufferer to employ the measures that proved successful in former cases.
The earliest writers on medicine trace its origin, in common with that of most other branches of knowledge, to the Egyptians. They appear to be the first nation that cultivated medicine and furthered its progress. Many peculiar medical properties were attributed to the deities. All diseases were supposed to originate from the anger of Isis. Resin was burned in the morning, myrrh at noon, and a composition termed cyphy in the evening, in the temples of Isis, and the sick were taken there to sleep, during which the oracles might reveal to them the means which they should employ to effect a cure. This is an illustration of the superstitions which prevailed at that time.
The earliest authentic records which we can ascertain from collateral reading are to be found in the Scriptures. Here it is stated that Joseph commanded his servants and physicians to embalm him (1700 B. C.). This shows that Egypt at that time possessed a set of men who practiced the healing art, and that they embalmed the dead. This must have required an idea of anatomy, which, needless to say, was crude and unscientific, as dissection of the human body at that time was prohibited, the penalty being death.
According to Pliny, the Egyptian kings encouraged post-mortems, for the purpose of ascertaining the cause of diseases; and this method was fostered by the Ptolemies, during whose reigns anatomy was raised to a higher standard.
Through the writings of Moses in the sacred Scriptures, we learn that the medicine of the Hebrews appertained mostly to public hygiene. Meat of the hog and rabbit was forbidden, as being injurious in the Egyptian and Indian climate. The relation of man and wife and the purification of women were regulated. The measures suggested by Moses for the prevention of the spread of leprosy have not yet been surpassed. Next to Moses, Solomon acquired quite an efficient knowledge of compounding remedies.
The Indian races were divided into castes, the priests alone enjoying the privilege of practicing medicine. Their medical knowledge was condensed in a book which they called Vagadasastir. They believed the body gave rise, through seventeen thousand vessels, to ten species of gas which conflicted and engendered disease. So far as we know, they were the first to record a way of testing the specific gravity of urine. Though accused of many absurdities, they claimed to cure the bites of venomous snakes and compounded an ointment which eradicated the cicatrices of smallpox,—a result which has not as yet been attained in the present epoch. The Chinese attribute the invention of medicine to Hoâm-ti, one of their emperors, who lived about 2687 B. C.; but possessing no anatomical knowledge, their surgery, to say the least, was barbarous. For over four thousand years the Chinese were not allowed to communicate with foreigners, and naturally their progress was at a standstill. They used cups, acupuncture, fomentations, lotions, plasters, baths, etc. Their midwifery practice consisted mainly of murderous principles, and it is only since the introduction of missionaries that a reformation in the medical practice of the Chinese empire has been accomplished.
The condition of medicine in Greece did not differ from that of the “rude and uncivilized nations.” But later, Greek physicians are credited with the most brilliant discoveries. The most distinguished of Chiron’s pupils was Æsculapius, who occupies the most conspicuous place in the history of medicine. Æsculapius is always painted with a staff, because the sick have need of a support; and the serpent entwined around it is the symbol of wisdom. The sons of Æsculapius are considered the fathers of surgery, and, for their distinguished valor at the siege of Troy, have been classed by Homer among the Greek heroes.
The first operation of venesection, or blood-letting, formerly so promiscuously done, with at times good, but oftener disastrous, results, and now rarely resorted to, is attributed to Podalirius, of recognized Grecian medical skill, the patient being a princess.
The early Greeks above all recognized the value of physical culture, which to-day occupies a prominent place in our curriculum. Were the children of to-day, like those of the ancient Greeks, compelled to follow a routine of physical training, a rugged constitution would replace many a “delicate” and “infirm” one, and the race propagated would tend to develop a stronger character. Then the weak-minded, now so conspicuously present, would be eradicated, and many diseased conditions fostered by an “inanimate” race would disappear.
Hygeia, from whence comes Hygiene, or the art of preserving health, was a pretended sister of Æsculapius. Anatomy could not flourish in Greece, because a most exemplary punishment awaited any untoward conduct toward the dead. Their peculiar religious beliefs regarding the rest of the soul were responsible for this.
The knowledge of the functions of the body in health and disease was appreciated by Pythagoras. Diogenes asserts that Alcmæon, one of the Pythagoreans, wrote a work on the functions, which work would consequently be the most ancient known treatise on physiology.
The age of Hippocrates (B. C. 460–370) was marked by a revolution in medical science. “This central figure in the history of medicine” was descendant of a family in which the practice of medicine was hereditary. He was an extensive writer on such subjects as epidemics, acute diseases, dislocations, fractures, etc. Owing to the impossibility of establishing a physiology without an anatomical basis, his references to these subjects are crude and incorrect. To Hippocrates we owe the classification of endemic, sporadic, and epidemic forms of disease, and their division into acute and chronic. He wrote on diseases of women and epilepsy, and his therapeutics, though crude, were a marked improvement on what had preceded. He wrote fully on external diseases and surgical therapeutics. In obstetrics he was a close observer and a thoughtful teacher. The brilliant theories and practices so diligently observed and urged by this master were thrown in the shadow by his thoughtless followers. The well-instructed physician is not ignorant of the opinions of Hippocrates, for truly the “divine old man” is the “Father of Physic.” He caused a revolution in the practice of medicine, semeiology, pathology, and dietetics. He taught physicians to observe attentively the progress of Nature, proved the inutility of theories, and showed that observation is the basis of medicine.
An important age, and one of marked progress in medicine, is from the foundation of the Alexandrian Library (320 B. C.) up to the death of Galen (A. D. 200). Under the Ptolemies dissection of human bodies was allowed, and hence, as already stated, the science of medicine received quite an impulse. Herophilus deserves first mention as a dissector. He described the brain and its vessels, the eye, the intestinal canal, and parts of the vascular system. The valves of the heart were more exactly described by Erasistratus, who discovered the lymph vessels and pointed out that the epiglottis prevents the entrance of food into the lungs.
Aretæus, more than any other up to his time, attempted to found pathology upon a sound anatomic basis, an effort which shows the scientific progress of his age.
Of all the physicians of antiquity, Galen was probably the most brilliant genius. In the midst of disorder he led back to the safer road of sound doctrine and accurate observation which distinguished the Hippocratic school. He wrote extensively on anatomy, especially regarding the muscles. He was the first vivisector, by exposing the muscles of animals and demonstrating their functions, and his classification according to their use is at present in vogue. Carefully regulated vivisection has been, and always will be, of incalculable benefit to the development of accurate medical knowledge, and an indirect aid in the alleviation of human suffering. Galen divided the body into cranial and thoracic cavities, and described the organs, etc., contained therein. Anatomy and physiology, the fundamental bases of medicine and surgery, made the most progress during the period just reviewed, and next came the description of diseases, their medical and surgical therapeutics.
After the sixth century medicine was exercised almost exclusively by the monks of the West. They were unworthy the name of physicians, as they resorted more to prayers, and were retarded by ignorance and prejudice.
During the seventh and eighth centuries there were among the monks a few traditionary remains of science, originating from the East. The prelates, archdeacons, etc., though continuing the practice of the healing art, were gradually discouraged by the church, but as late as the middle of the fifteenth century the Bishop of Colchester was chaplain and first physician to Henry VI. In 1452 physicians of the University of Paris were not allowed to marry, the applicant, prior to admission, taking the oath of celibacy.
During the twelfth century the school of Salernum, through the personal interest manifested by Emperor Frederick II., acquired a degree of reputation attained by few similar institutions in ancient times. Schools in Paris and England were placed on an advanced standing, the professors being salaried; and about this period the titles of bachelor, licentiate, and master, were granted to the physicians.
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries medicine made remarkable progress in France under St. Louis. During the reign of this prince the teaching of medicine and surgery was divided into separate and distinct classes. Medical institutions now became greatly encouraged, and in the leading cities of Europe universities were erected under the auspices of royalty.
Medical instruction experienced an important revolution in the European countries during the fourteenth century. For the first time in Europe anatomy was taught by dissection of the human body. Guy de Chauliac, who lived at the end of this century, wrote a treatise on surgery which served as the basis of European instruction until Ambroise Paré of France published his celebrated work upon the same subject.
The fifteenth century was also one of improvement. The Arabs added a few observations on pathology, especially of the eruptive fevers. Some useful works on pharmacy and materia medica were published during this epoch. During this era the operation was devised for replacing the nose when removed by accident or disease, by using for the purpose a piece of flesh taken from the arm, and applying it by a grafting process. About the middle of this period the internal administration of metallic drugs was introduced. Towards the latter end, the invention of printing tended to assist the progress of medicine. Near the close of this century scurvy was first noticed in Germany. During this period more energy was devoted to postmortem demonstrations and the study of symptoms of diseases.
To Benevieni we owe the commencement of the study of gross pathology and pathological anatomy. Malgaigne remarks of him: “A eulogy which he merits, and which he shared with no other person, and which has not been accorded to him up to this time by the many historians of surgery, who have superficially searched among these precious sources, is that he was the first who had the habit, felt the need, and set the useful example, which he transmitted to his successors, of searching in the cadaver, according to the title of his book, for the concealed causes of disease.” His observations on anatomical heart lesions, gall-stone, and presence of parasites in the body, were original. John Fernel, who has been surnamed “the modern Galen,” divided medicine into physiology, pathology, and therapeutics. The fundamental maxim of therapeutics, that every disease must be combated by contrary remedies, was early laid down by him, and he claimed that anything that cured a disease was contrary to it. Surgery was placed on a high scale during this era, as thorough a course as the time afforded was given, and a rigid examination held at its termination. Ambroise Paré contributed largely toward making this a glorious century. He rose from the lowest walks of life to the highest professional attainments and honors. He was the first to control hemorrhage by tying the bleeding vessels, thus doing away with the former crude and painful method of pouring on hot oil. This procedure proved quite a boon to surgery; as an instance it may be mentioned that prior to the introduction of this method in amputations the bleeding was controlled by means of a hot iron, and this before the days of anæsthesia.
Every age of ancient, mediæval, and modern medicine has had its charlatans, and the more civilization progresses, the more popular these quacks become with certain types of people, particularly those of the middle and lower classes, although no class appears to be exempt. Latent, unscrupulous, and unprincipled, they play upon the credulity of the ignorant.
The central figure of the mediæval charlatans was Paracelsus, who was given to drink and debauchery. He advertised extensively, similar to the charlatans of to-day, and exerted an influence in his time. “The school which he would have founded was nothing but a school of ignorance, dissipation, and boasting—a school of medical dishonesty.”
During the sixteenth century the greatest discoveries took place in anatomy, based upon dissections, the only rational method of ascertaining anatomical knowledge. The lesser circulation of the blood, or that through the lungs, was appreciated.
The officers of the universities were chosen by the students, who assisted in laying out the curriculum. Compare this with the rigid methods of medical instruction now in vogue. The practitioners were of roving habits, which were evidently contracted during their student days, as it was customary for them to go from one school to another, the poor classes defraying expenses by begging and singing.
There was evident improvement in the social and mental status of medical men upon the approach of the seventeenth century, and this period is signalized by the discovery of the circulation of the blood, one of the most important ever made in medicine. Chemistry now assumed the dignified aspect of a science, which fact benefited the progress of medicine.
It is difficult for us at the present time to understand why the circulation of the blood was not discovered prior to this period, but to the ancients it was incomprehensible. They believed the arteries contained air, because after death they were found empty. William Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, did not publish the results of his investigations until 1628, first submitting them to fifteen years of proof. This naturally revolutionized physiology. The capillary circulation, or that intermediate between the arteries and veins, was described by Malpighi in 1628. Of course this was possible only through the means of a microscope. No less remarkable was the discovery of the lymphatic vessels. Peruvian bark (the alkaloid quinine being more commonly employed) so universally employed as a specific for malaria, was first used in the early part of this epoch.
During this period ophthalmology (which treats of the diseases of the eye) was cultivated in France, cataract was first recognized, and the diseases of the ear first systematically described. Altogether the century showed marked progression, closing with the teachings of Sydenham, “the English Hippocrates.”
The eighteenth century was one of continued progress. The eminent observers devoted more time to microscopical work, studying the minute structure of the tissues and cells. One of the most prominent is Lieberkühn, who invented the solar microscope, with which he was enabled to exhibit the circulation of the blood. The systematic practice of the preventive inoculation against small-pox by vaccination originated in this decade. The first inoculation with cow-pox was in 1774. Edward Jenner, the English surgeon, was “the father of vaccination,” which he first did in 1796. About 1800, Dr. Waterhouse, then professor of medicine in Harvard College, performed the first vaccination in America, the patients being his four children.
The treatment of the insane was changed from one of torture and barbarous methods to a more scientific one, conducive to the comfort and return to health of the patient.
This period marks the earliest example of medical teaching in this country, consisting of the demonstrations of anatomy in Philadelphia by Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, upon his return from Europe. This was previous to 1750, about which time a body was dissected in New York. In 1754–56 Dr. William Hunter of Scotland delivered a series of lectures on anatomy, accompanied by dissections, at Newport, R. I.
In 1762 Dr. Shippen laid the foundation of a medical school in Philadelphia, which finally developed into the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. This was the first medical school established in this country. In 1768 a school of medicine was organized in New York, and the next in succession was the Medical Department of Harvard College in 1782. The fourth was established at Hanover, 1797, being connected with Dartmouth College. These were the only medical colleges instituted prior to the present century. The first book on American surgery was written in 1775 by Dr. John Jones, the title being “Wounds and Fractures.”
“The tendency of the nineteenth century seems to be a continuation, and, perhaps, in some respects an exaggeration of the condition that obtained in France during the previous century; in other words, the world has become practically an enormous school of pathological anatomy and diagnosis—a school inaugurated by Bichat, as representing so-called scientific or exact medicine.”
DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.
Darwin has promulgated “the most influential philosophic doctrine of this or any other century.” Our materia medica and the laws of physics have been enriched by botanical discoveries, aiding greatly the experimental researches of to-day. Helmholz has given us an instrument called the ophthalmoscope, containing a series of numbered magnifying lenses, with which the interior of the eye can be explored by looking directly through the pupil of the eye, similar to looking through a door into a room. Through his knowledge of physics, Seebach was able to make fame through his discovery of thermal electricity. Daguerre, who invented photography, must not be overlooked, as by means of this process, many conditions are directly appreciated by the eye which could not be told in words and still convey an idea of the tumor, etc., being described. It may not be amiss to mention here that the biograph will in a few years prove an important factor in teaching the various operations. One surgeon in France is now employing it. We must not overlook Edison and his electrical achievements which directly and indirectly affect medicine; nor Bell’s telephone, which is sometimes used to locate a bullet. By placing the receiver to the ear and probing for the bullet with electric conductors, the making and breaking of the circuit upon contact with the missile is transmitted to the receiver and distinctly heard. This procedure, however, has been discarded since the introduction by Röntgen of the X-ray.
A very significant feature of the age has been the extraordinary development of associations devoted to scientific discussions and the publication of medical literature and journals. The formation of medical societies, especially in the United States, has been quite active. But few counties are without a medical organization, referred to as “The ... County Medical Society.”
The American Medical Association was established by Dr. Nathan Smith Davis in Philadelphia fifty-two years ago (1847). The first two years no meetings were held, but since then regular annual meetings have been in progress, the place of assembly being decided upon by a majority vote of its members. It has met in the city of its birth five times, the founder has been elected president twice, and is still (1900) in active practice at the age of eighty-two. He has attended all its meetings held in various cities from Boston to San Francisco.
The first medical journal in this country appeared in New York, 1797. It was called “The New York Repository,” was published quarterly, and managed to reach its twenty-third edition. Fifty years ago there were about twenty journals published in the United States. At the end of the century there are two hundred and thirty.
In 1810 there were six hundred and fifty students of medicine in America, and one hundred graduates. At the present writing about twenty thousand medical students are enrolled in our various colleges, and during the spring of 1899 about three thousand five hundred received the degree of M. D.
STARLING MEDICAL COLLEGE AND ST. FRANCIS HOSPITAL.
The original branches, practice of medicine, surgery, obstetrics, physiology, anatomy, therapeutics, and chemistry, have been subdivided and specialized. Among the chief of these specialties are gynecology, which treats of diseases of women; pediatrics, which treats of diseases of children; dermatology, which treats of diseases of the skin; ophthalmology, which treats of diseases of the eye; laryngology, which treats of diseases of the throat and larynx; otology, which treats of diseases of the ear; neurology, which treats of diseases of the nerves; medical jurisprudence, which treats of the relation of medicine to law; pathology, which treats of diseased tissues and organs; bacteriology, which treats of the microbes; and physical diagnosis, which treats of the art of discriminating disease by means of the eye, ear, and touch. The nucleus of the teaching regarding the latter subject is due to the efforts and observations of Corvisart, of France. He was the first to ascertain the diseased areas of the lungs, by tapping on the chest with the fingers, and listening to the pitch of the note thus elicited. A low, dull note indicates that the lung is solid, as in pneumonia; a flat note that fluid is present, and so on. By placing the ear to the chest wall, sounds in health and disease are heard, which vary in intensity, degree, etc. Laennec discovered by accident that this method was greatly improved and the sounds more distinctly heard if a cylindrical tube was interposed between the ear and the chest wall. The outcome of this principle is the stethoscope.
DR. NATHAN SMITH DAVIS, OF CHICAGO.
The name of Pravaz, the Lyons surgeon, has been perpetuated by the hypodermic syringe which he devised. The employment of suitable drugs in this instrument is the method par excellence for relieving pain. With it drugs can be injected into unconscious patients. Suicides who refuse to swallow emetics can have their stomachs emptied most effectually of their contents by a hypodermatic injection of apomorphine.
The thermometer used for taking the temperature of the human body is so arranged that the mercury does not descend into the bulb until shaken down, hence after taking the temperature it remains uninfluenced until shaken down. Were an ordinary thermometer used, by the time it was removed from the patient to the light the mercury would descend several degrees.
Pasteur began the studies of fermentation in 1854. Through his observations, aided by the microscope, the opinion was reached that micro-organisms played an important role in the causation of disease. Many of the laboratory investigators became imbued with the spirit, and through their diligent observations the microbes causing many diseases have been isolated. It remained for Koch to discover the tubercle bacillus, or Bacillus tuberculosis, which is the cause of consumption. The sputum of a patient, properly stained, and examined under the microscope, will at once decide whether that individual has consumption.
Having ascertained that bacteria were the cause of disease, sepsis (blood poisoning), etc., it then remained to discover a method of killing them, without any undue injury to the patient. Sir Joseph Lister began experiments upon this hypothesis, and in 1867 was able to publish favorable results. But lo! the world was slow to bend to a new thought ably demonstrated, and for a score of years he was bitterly opposed.
It was Crawford W. Long, in a little village of Alabama, who, in 1842, was the first to put to sleep a patient with ether, and remove a small growth. The patient, upon awakening, had experienced no pain. This method of relieving pain was christened “anæsthesia” several years later, by the distinguished Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, whose writings did more than those of any other American to eradicate “child-bed fever.” Every woman in the land owes him an eternal debt of gratitude. To Guthrie, of Sackett’s Harbor, New York, is due the credit of first discovering chloroform, but Sir James Simpson, of Edinburgh, deserves the credit of first employing it in medicine.
The surgeons of America laid the foundation of gynecology, the progress of which has been more marked than any department of medicine. The first ovariotomy in the world was performed by Dr. Ephraim McDowell in Kentucky, December, 1809. This was prior to the days of anæsthesia and antisepsis, and a howling mob awaited outside, ready to murder the brave surgeon should his patient die during the operation. “In five days,” says Dr. McDowell, “I visited her, and much to my astonishment found her engaged in making up her bed.” Dr. J. Marion Sims, our illustrious genius who established an international reputation, did much to promulgate plastic work on the female genitalia. The deeds of medical men are soon forgotten by an ungrateful public, and the sons of Æsculapius are the last to have monuments erected to their memory. But four exist in America; one, in New York, to that grand old gynecologist, Dr. J. Marion Sims; one in Washington, to Dr. Samuel D. Gross, “the Nestor of American Surgery;” one in Bushnell Park, Hartford, Conn., to Dr. Horace Wells, the discoverer of anæsthesia; and one in the Public Garden in Boston to the discoverer of anæsthesia. This last bears no name. Antisepsis and anæsthesia have played an unusually important role in obstetrics, by alleviating the sufferings of childbirth and eradicating child-bed fever, thus reducing the mortality of both mother and child.
Physiology has made very rapid strides during this era. Beaumont, in his famous work, describes digestion in the stomach and experiments on the gastric juice. He was enabled to observe this in a voyageur who was accidentally wounded in the stomach by the discharge of a musket, June, 1822. Quite a large opening remained, which Nature closed with a valve. By pushing the valve to one side, the interior of the stomach could be explored.
Through the work of the experimental physiologists in the laboratories, the study of the action of drugs on the lungs, heart, liver, stomach, nerves, etc., has been greatly enhanced.
Anatomy is now being taught by the only true method, and that is dissection. Didactic lectures are given, but the student must dissect every part of the human body before he can receive his degree. Formerly graves were robbed, and the bodies sold to the colleges. Now, however, through legislative enactment, unclaimed bodies are turned over to the colleges, where they are preserved either by injection, a pickling process, or by cold storage.
J. MARION SIMS, A.B., M.D., (Late Surgeon to the Woman’s Hospital, New York.)
The ophthalmologists of to-day fear nothing inside nor outside the eye. Cross eyes are straightened, cataracts removed, eyeballs taken out and glass eyes inserted.
This article would be incomplete, were not a few remarks directed toward the trained nurse.
The first training school for nurses in America was established in connection with the Lying-in Charity Hospital of Philadelphia in 1828. This school, still in existence, thus has the honor of being the oldest in this country, and is antedated by only one abroad.
The generally recognized profession for women, that of the trained nurse, is practically of recent development. Twenty-five years ago the training school connected with the Bellevue Hospital, New York, graduated a class of five nurses. This was a marked departure in the medical history of this country. Since then the demand for the trained nurse has been great, and no hospital is complete without such a training school.
The progress of medicine in the nineteenth century has been far more rapid, creditable, and momentous than during any like period of the past. This is true not only in the United States, but in every civilized country. Its entire scope, meaning, and purpose have undergone changes equivalent to revolution. Antique superstitions, idle theories, foolish speculations, absurd practices, the ridiculous jealousies and incriminations of opposing schools, have been largely eliminated. Medical institutions are upon the loftiest plane in their history. Teachers are better endowed than ever before. Periods of scholastic preparation have been lengthened and curriculums enlarged, thus securing for the fields of practice a higher mental equipment and more conscionable devotion to duty. Never before have the auxiliary and material agencies been turned to so frequent and preventive account. Electricity, the microscope, anæsthesia, antisepsis, laboratory experiment, hospital opportunities, etc., are ever constant inspirations to skilled treatment and fresh researches. As the grand army of humanitarian workers was never so large as at the end of the century, so it was never better fortified for attack upon the enemies of health, fuller of enthusiasm or more deeply established in the public confidence. One may not, as yet, assert that medicine is ridding itself of empiricism with a satisfactory degree of rapidity, or that it has arrived at the stage of an exact science, but it surely has approached such a stage as nearly as conditions will allow.
EVOLUTION OF THE RAILWAY
By E. E. RUSSELL TRATMAN, C.E.,
Assistant Editor of “Engineering News,” Chicago.
The railway as a means of rapid transportation and general intercommunication is one of the most important factors in the development of modern commerce and civilization, and, after reviewing what it has done and become in the nineteenth century, one cannot help wishing for the opportunity to review the railway wonders of the twentieth century.
While the history of the railway dates back far beyond the nineteenth century, yet the railway, as we know it to-day, is essentially a product of this century. It dates, in fact, from England in 1830, when the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, 31 miles long, was opened, and was operated from the beginning by steam locomotives. The Stockton & Darlington Railway, 37 miles, was opened in 1825, but this line was intended only for private coal traffic, while the other line was built for general passenger and freight service, and for the use and benefit of the public.
The United States followed this lead very closely. In 1828 the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company built a line from its mines to its canal at Honesdale. This was a private coal road, however, and may best be compared to the Stockton & Darlington Railway. The first public railway operated by steam was the Mohawk & Hudson Railway, from Albany to Schenectady, 16 miles, which was opened in 1831. The Baltimore & Ohio Railway was the first railway enterprise of more than local character, being designed to open communication with the Ohio River, a distance of 400 miles. It was chartered in 1827, commenced in 1828, completed to Ellicott’s Mills (13 miles) in 1830, and to Washington (40 miles) in 1834. It is one of the great monuments of the American railway system, and it was examined by government commissions from Russia and Austria in 1831 and 1849.
In speaking of the railway we unconsciously associate with it the steam locomotive, since the two are so entirely interdependent. Railways operated by horses, or by cables and stationary engines, could never have become the great civilizing and commercial medium which the railway operated by swift locomotives has become. Similarly, the development of the locomotive grew apace, as soon as it was recognized that the smooth track of the railway—and not the rough track of the highway—was to be its field of operation.
At the end of the nineteenth century, after seventy years of development, the world has nearly 500,000 miles of railway, on which locomotives of 80 to 110 tons in weight (without their tenders) haul freight trains of 1000 to 3000 tons. Passenger trains, too, are run at speeds of 40 to 75 miles per hour in regular daily service, and even make bursts of speed at 80 to 100 miles per hour. The fact that in 1890 Europe and North America had about 320,000 miles of railway out of a grand total of 370,000 miles, indicates that this phase of nineteenth-century progress has been due mainly to peoples of Christian civilization, and besides this, it must be remembered that the railways of Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America have been mainly built by the same peoples. The central regions of these four latter geographical divisions are fields for twentieth-century development.
The great trunk lines of railway communication are hardly more important than the vast network of branch and minor lines which connect and intersect them. These latter lines bring the people of smaller towns and country districts into closer relation with the large cities, the centres of industrial and intellectual energy, enterprise, and wealth. They thus tend to reduce isolation and dependence upon purely local resources.
THE OLD STAGE COACH.
Railways also serve important military and strategic purposes. In India many of the railways have been built with a view to the defense of the northeastern frontier, and many European governments assume certain military authority over the railways. The first trans-continental railways of the United States and Canada were largely assisted by government subsidies on account of their great importance for the transportation of troops. The railway also serves purposes of pleasure, as well as of commerce and war. Not only do the ordinary railways carry much tourist and pleasure travel, but lines are built exclusively for such travel. Some of these take people to the summer and pleasure resorts, while others cater to the inherent desire of man to ascend great altitudes and to behold the world in its beauty and grandeur spread below them. For this purpose alone have railways been built to the summits of the Rockies, the Alps, and other mountain ranges.
At the end of the century the United States has about 185,000 miles of railway, which have cost about $53,000 per mile and earn $6500 per mile. Great Britain has about 22,000 miles, which have cost $225,000 per mile and earn about $20,000 per mile. A large proportion of this high cost of construction is due to the high prices for land and to the preliminary parliamentary proceedings which are necessary in securing the right to build railways. The average cost per mile of railways in different countries is as follows:—
| United States | $53,000 |
| India | 75,000 |
| Japan | 92,000 |
| France | 100,000 |
| Germany | 101,500 |
| Switzerland (ordinary) | $119,300 |
| Do (mountain) | 162,500 |
| Russia | 122,000 |
| Austria-Hungary | 125,400 |
| Great Britain | 225,000 |
One of the great economic purposes of railways in new countries is to reduce the cost of rapid transportation in bulk far below that of slow transportation in small quantities. Train speed is a matter of secondary importance in such cases, the traffic accommodation and capacity of the slowest train being far beyond that of road or canal transportation. Traffic will be served better and at much less cost by being carried in bulk on 500 miles of railway at 10 miles per hour, than on 100 miles of railway at 35 miles per hour, and then in small lots on wagons or canal boats at 3 miles per hour for 400 miles.
The advantages of the rapid transportation of perishable freight by rail, especially in regard to food supplies for cities, were early recognized, and by 1854 the trains brought car-loads of country milk into London every day. Previous to this, the supply was obtained from cows kept in stables, which was an unsanitary and expensive plan. Another immediate result of railway service was that people began to live farther out of the towns, and then began the growth of the suburban residence districts, which are such a feature of modern cities and city life.
FIRST TRAIN OF STEAM CARS.
The early railways were built merely as local lines, and there was little idea of their ultimate connection or extension. These small individual lines, however, with their own rate-making powers and systems of management, have been consolidated into great systems, thus effecting material economies and facilities in operation. Thus the Mohawk & Hudson Railway of 1831 was the first of a series of lines now consolidated to form the New York Central Railway; while the Liverpool & Manchester Railway of 1830 was the beginning of what is now the London & Northwestern Railway system. Not only is there this consolidation, but also a most comprehensive system for the interchange of traffic between different systems. Thus passengers can purchase through tickets and travel through from Paris to St. Petersburg, or from Boston to San Francisco, while freight cars can be sent through in a similar way. This is really a wonderful feature of railway development. The following are a few examples of the great railway systems of the world:—
| Railway. | Miles. | Loco- motives. | Passenger Cars. | Freight Cars. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania (U.S.A.) | 8882 | 3594 | 3847 | 146,060 |
| Chicago & Northwestern (U.S.A.) | 7996 | 1380 | 1176 | 49,484 |
| Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (U.S.A.) | 7462 | 1205 | 936 | 40,720 |
| Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé (U.S.A.) | 7120 | 1036 | 655 | 29,837 |
| Great Western (England) | 2576 | 1837 | 6201 | 53,156 |
| London & Northwestern (England) | 1912 | 2851 | 8446 | 65,456 |
| Paris, Lyons & Mediterranean (France) | 5594 | 2624 | 5837 | 87,320 |
| Western (France) | 3464 | 1492 | 4378 | 26,487 |
| Mediterranean (Italy) | 3568 | 1314 | 3706 | 23,077 |
| Northwestern (India) | 3371 | 602 | 2121 | 10,312 |
In some countries the government owns and operates all, or nearly all, of the railways, as in Germany, Belgium, and the African and Australian colonies. Switzerland, in 1898, decided that its government should acquire the railways. In Holland and Italy the government owns the railways, but leases them to operating companies. France, Brazil, and the Argentine Republic have both state and private lines, with a greater or less degree of state assistance and control of the latter. In Great Britain the railways are owned entirely by private companies, but their operation is subject to government supervision in the public interests. In the United States there was at first almost absolute freedom of construction, but the consequent abuses and financial disasters, owing to unnecessary lines and cut-throat competition, have led some of the States to wisely exercise some degree of control over railway affairs. The interference of the federal government in railway affairs has been slight but important. In 1862 it aided the construction of the first transcontinental railway; in 1887 it passed the act for the regulation of rates, etc., in interstate traffic; and in 1893 it passed the act making compulsory the use of power brakes and automatic couplers on freight cars.
Government ownership and operation of railways is rarely satisfactory from a financial or a traffic point of view, but, on the other hand, an absolutely unrestricted railway element is liable to become a serious evil. The best system is undoubtedly that in which the railways are owned and operated by private enterprise, but subject to state supervision, like steamships, factories, etc. It must not be forgotten, however, that private enterprise is not always available. In Russia, for example, the development of railways would have been but slow on such a basis; and in India, government backing was needed to induce British capitalists to enter the field. It is unfortunate for China that neither the government nor the people have been competent or enterprising enough to deal with the railway question. The present system of development by rival interests of various nationalities seems almost certain to lead to the eventual dissolution of the empire and its partition among other nations, as Africa is already in large measure partitioned.
In the United States railway construction has gone by leaps and bounds, and there is now a vast network of lines,—main, secondary, branch, and local. The highest records of construction within the past twenty years were 12,800 miles built in 1887, and 11,600 miles in 1882, while the lowest record was 1750 miles in 1896. The growth from 1886 to 1899 has been as follows, the relatively small increase in number of locomotives being due to the greater power of modern engines:—
| 1886. | 1899. | Increase, per cent. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mileage | 133,600 | 185,000 | 88.47 |
| Tonnage carried | 482,000,000 | 780,000,000 | 62.00 |
| Number of cars | 871,500 | 1,330,000 | 52.61 |
| Number of locomotives | 26,400 | 36,000 | 36.30 |
Perhaps the railway of most recent interest is the first line in Alaska, which is twenty miles long, and was built as a result of the rush to the Klondike gold fields. This was opened on February 20, 1899. The great transcontinental railways, however, are of much broader interest. In 1835 the Rev. Samuel Parker, a missionary in the Northwest, suggested a railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Dr. Samuel E. Barlow proposed one from New York to the Columbia River, 2000 miles, to cost $10,000 per mile, and to carry traffic at about seven miles per hour. From 1844 to 1849 Mr. Asa Whitney urged Congress to grant land to aid him in building a line from Lake Michigan to San Francisco, 2030 miles, to cost $20,000 per mile. Between 1853 and 1861 Congress had surveys made of five routes, but no definite action was taken until after the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861, when the federal government soon recognized the importance of having direct communication with the Pacific States, which were at that time isolated. Companies were organized in 1862, and work commenced in 1864, under government subsidies and military aid and protection. On May 10, 1869, the Union Pacific Railway (from the east) and the Central Pacific Railway (from the west) met at Promontory Point, Utah, 1186 miles from the Missouri River and 638 miles from Sacramento, Cal.
A RAILWAY TRAIN IN BELGIUM.
Now, thirty years later, we have six so-called transcontinental railways, no one of which, however, has its own line from ocean to ocean, and none of which run through trains or cars. In Canada, however, the Canadian Pacific Railway (opened in 1887) has a through line from St. John and Montreal to Vancouver, with through trains daily between the latter points, 2905 miles. The principal transcontinental lines, with the total distances from ocean to ocean, are shown on the following page.
| Railway. | Opened. | Route. | Length. | Total Distance. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Canadian Pacific | 1887 | Montreal to Vancouver | 2905 | 2905 |
| 2. Great Northern | 1893 | St. Paul to Seattle | 1827 | 3157[6] |
| 3. Northern Pacific | — | St. Paul to Tacoma | 1912 | 3242 |
| 4. Union Pacific | 1869 | Omaha to San Francisco | 1928 | 3340 |
| 5. Union Pacific | — | Omaha to Portland | 1823 | 3235 |
| 6. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé | — | Chicago to San Francisco | 2577 | 3497 |
| 7. Southern Pacific | 1883 | New Orleans to San Francisco | 2489 | 4164[6] |
[6] In Nos. 2 and 7 the total distance is given from New York.
Of the various completed and partly completed interoceanic railways across Central America, the most important by far is the Panama railway, in Colombia, 47½ miles long. This was opened as long ago as 1855, and was originally intended as a link in a route between New York and San Francisco, 5450 miles. In South America there are few railways of great importance, and the interior yet remains undeveloped, with the exception of the great plains of the Argentine Republic. A transcontinental line between Buenos Ayres and Valparaiso, 850 miles, is nearly completed, but work has been stopped for some years, leaving 50 miles yet to be built at the summit of the Andes. An interesting, but as yet visionary, scheme is that for an intercontinental railway through Central and South America. The distance from the southern frontier of Mexico to Buenos Ayres would be 5500 miles. About 1280 miles of this are built, but comprise many small lines which would have to be rebuilt. The total cost would be about $220,000,000, at a low estimate, and the total distance from New York to Buenos Ayres would be 10,300 miles by rail.
In Europe there is a vast and comprehensive network of railway lines, but the distances are less, even St. Petersburg and Constantinople being but about 1600 and 1800 miles from Paris. While the development of railways has been remarkable, the most striking features are the lines which cross the Alps to connect the interior with the Mediterranean ports. The first of these was the Semmering railway, on the route between Vienna and Trieste (1854). The Mont Cenis railway (1867) was mainly a surface line, with heavy inclines operated on the Fell grip-rail system. Its route followed the great carriage road built by Napoleon in 1803–10. The railway over the Brenner Pass was opened in 1868; in 1871 the Mont Cenis tunnel superseded the high-level line, and in 1880 the Great St. Gothard railway was opened. This was followed by the Arlberg railway in 1884, and the Simplon railway is now under construction.
Europe has the only railway within the Arctic Circle. It runs from Lulea, on the Gulf of Bothnia, northwest to the Gellivara iron mines, 44 miles within the circle. As the port is closed by ice during the winter, the line is to be extended to the Atlantic coast at Ofoten, 69° north latitude, where the influence of the Gulf Stream keeps the ports open. This end of the line will be 130 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
LOOP IN THE SELKIRKS, SHOWING FOUR TRACKS.
The countries of Asia (with the exception of India) are but scantily supplied with railways. Even Palestine—the Holy Land—has, however, been invaded, and has now two railways. One of these is from Jaffa (the biblical Joppa) to Jerusalem, 54 miles (1892); the other is from Beirut to Damascus, 70 miles. British interests have long advocated an “all-rail-to-India” project. The line would start opposite Constantinople, pass down the Euphrates valley, across Persia, and along the coast of Baluchistan to Kurrachee, connecting there with the Indian railway system. This great system aggregates 25,000 miles, and extends up to the Bolan Pass and the Khyber Pass, on the Afghan frontier. Southward, it has been proposed to connect with the Ceylon railways by a line of bridges and embankments along the reefs and shoals known as Adam’s Bridge.
Owing to the vigorous opposition of the government and people, China has but 350 miles of railway to its 4,200,000 square miles and its population of 420,000,000. Many lines are projected, but are all in the eastern portion, and the twentieth century will be well advanced before the railway opens up the heart of the country to civilization. Japan, the very opposite of China, has encouraged railway construction, and now has 3000 miles of railway to its 147,600 square miles and its population of 45,000,000.
The most notable of all the railways in Asia is the great Trans-Siberian railway, now being built by the Russian government. It was commenced in 1891, and may be completed by 1903, the distance from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, or Port Arthur, being then about 5670 miles. There are several large cities on the route, and the line does not pass through such a wild and uninhabited country as that through which the Union Pacific Railroad was built thirty years ago. It is now open to Lake Baikal, the trip of 3230 miles being made in about 12 days by the slow train, or 8 days by the less frequent fast train. The road is roughly and lightly built in many respects, so that high speeds cannot be maintained. The eastern end of the road will pass through Chinese territory, thus giving Russia a firm foothold in that empire. Hardly less interesting is the Trans-Caspian railway, from the Caspian Sea to Samarcand, 885 miles, with a branch from Merv to within 95 miles of the Afghan city of Herat. An extension to the Persian Gulf is also projected. As the Trans-Siberian railway has developed a new wheat-growing region, so the Trans-Caspian railway is developing a new cotton-growing region.
In Africa the railways already extend northward from Cape Town, through the land of the Boers and up to Buluwayo, the old Zulu stronghold, 1400 miles. There is a picturesque project for carrying the line on to the Mediterranean, a total distance of 5500 miles, but this will not materialize for many years. The Congo railway, passing the rapids, opens communication between the coast and a long stretch of inland navigation. Several lines are being pushed from the east coast into the interior, and a transcontinental railway from St. Paul de Loando, on the west, has been commenced, but there is not now much life in this latter project. The French have two favorite schemes for railways,—from Algeria to Timbuctoo, and from Tunis to Lake Chad, the latter line being about 1600 miles in length.
In Australia, the lines of the different colonies are gradually extending and connecting to form a continuous system, which is hampered, however, by differences of gauge. There is railway communication between the capitals of Queensland (Brisbane), New South Wales (Sydney), Victoria (Melbourne), and South Australia (Adelaide). The great stretch westward to the coast cities of Western Australia is yet in the future, as is also the South Australian transcontinental line from Adelaide northward across vast deserts (already crossed by the telegraph) to Palmerston.
ENTRANCE TO ST. GOTHARD TUNNEL, SWITZERLAND.
Great bridges and tunnels are among the prominent features of the railways of the world, but space forbids entering into details of these works. They are in principle similar to those required for highways, but many of these great works would never have been undertaken for such traffic as is carried by a highway. The only railway suspension bridge ever built was the Niagara bridge, opened in 1855, and replaced by a steel arch in 1898. The development of bridges and traffic may be judged from the fact that the Victoria single-track tubular bridge over the St. Lawrence, at Montreal, which was opened in 1859, was replaced in 1897–98 by a double-track railway and roadway truss bridge on the same piers. The steel arch bridge, 1700 feet long, across the Mississippi, at St. Louis, cost $5,300,000. The tubular bridge, 6592 feet long, over the St. Lawrence, at Montreal, Canada, cost $7,000,000. The cantilever bridge, 8925 feet long, over the Firth of Forth, Great Britain, cost $13,000,000. The cost of the proposed suspension bridge, 3000 feet long, over the Hudson, at New York, is estimated at $13,000,000. The first railway tunnel was the Portage Tunnel, in Pennsylvania, built in 1831. The longest railway tunnel is the Simplon, in Switzerland. It is 12.25 miles in length, and is still under construction. The next longest is the Gothard, Switzerland. It is 9.30 miles long, and was opened in 1881.
In track construction, cast-iron rails began to be superseded by wrought iron in 1820, and many of the early American railways had strap iron laid on timber stringers. Within the past twenty years steel has been used almost exclusively. In place of rails weighing 25 to 35 lbs. per yard, and 3 to 15 feet in length, we now use rails of 80 to 100 lbs. per yard, 30 to 60 feet long. Stone blocks and wooden ties were first used to support the rails, and the latter are now generally used, although metal ties are extensively used and date back to 1846. In 1894 there were thirty-five thousand miles of railway laid with this form of track. The next development will probably be a permanent and continuous concrete bed for the rails; as the present construction, with wooden ties laid in stone or other ballast, requires continual attention and repair under the effects of heavy traffic.
RAILWAY SIGNALS.
The semaphore signal was introduced in England by Mr. C. H. Gregory in 1841, and is now used in all parts of the world, to govern and protect train movements. The first interlocking plant was erected in 1843, and the complete plants—as used to-day—date from 1856. Now, practically all important junctions are equipped with interlocking plants, which prevent conflicting signals and switches being so set as to lead to accident. The electric telegraph was patented by Cooke and Wheatstone in 1837, and in 1839 they secured its introduction to govern the train service on the Great Western Railway (England). The movements were telegraphed from station to station, and a train was not allowed to leave a station until the preceding train had passed the next station in advance. This was the beginning of the “block system,” which is a great element in the safe operation of traffic, since it maintains an interval of space between trains. Mr. Edwin Clark’s telegraph block system was introduced in 1853, and as traffic increased intermediate block signal stations were established between the regular stations, so as to shorten the distances between trains. This system is compulsory in Great Britain and is already largely used in the United States. It was at first held that it was not adapted to conditions in this country, where so many lines have but a single track, but experience has shown that it increases the facility as well as the safety of operating traffic on single and double track lines alike.
AN AMERICAN EXPRESS LOCOMOTIVE.
Steam locomotives were used on colliery railways in England as early as 1804, when Trevithick built an engine, which was the first to haul a train on rails. George Stephenson built his first locomotive in 1814, and in 1825 built the “Locomotion” for the Stockton & Darlington Railway. Horses, stationary engines, and steam locomotives were all proposed for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, and in 1829 the directors offered a premium of $2500 for the best locomotive. Each engine was to consume its smoke, weigh about 6 tons, cost not more than $2750, and be capable of hauling a train of 20 tons at 10 miles per hour. This led to the now historical trials at Rainhill, in October, 1829, between the “Rocket” (Stephenson), the “Novelty” (Braithwaite and Ericson), and the “Sans Pareil” (Hackworth). The award was made to the “Rocket” as the most practicable machine, although the “Novelty” attained a higher speed, and the “Sans Pareil” was also a good engine and continued in use for several years. Seguin introduced the locomotive in France in 1827, having modified and rebuilt an old Stephenson engine.
The first locomotive operated in the United States was the imported “Stourbridge Lion,” on the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co.’s line, in 1829. Cooper’s “Tom Thumb” was run on the Baltimore & Ohio Railway in 1830, and in 1831 the directors of this road offered premiums of $4000 and $3500 for locomotives. Each engine was to weigh not more than 3½ tons, to have four wheels, and to haul loads of 15 tons at 15 miles per hour for 30 days. Five engines were presented, by Davis, Costell, Milholland, Childs, and James. The prizes were awarded to the first two, the Davis engine “York” being rebuilt under the direction of its inventor and Mr. Ross Winans, while the “Costell” was put in switching service. In 1831 the “John Bull” was built by the Stephensons in England, and was put in service on the Camden & Amboy Railway (U. S. A.) in the same year. In 1893 this old engine was readjusted and ran from New York to Chicago, 912 miles, under its own steam, hauling two cars of the type of 1836.
In 1898 there were about 19,500 locomotives in Great Britain and 36,500 in the United States. As a comparison between the little engines of early days and the huge and swift engines of to-day, it may be stated that modern passenger locomotives are now constructed with as many as six driving wheels, and ten wheels in all. Some of those in use on the Great Northern Railway, Great Britain, have driving wheels of 97 inches in diameter. On the Fitchburg Railway, U. S. A., locomotives are in use which weigh 75 tons. Some modern freight locomotives have as many as ten driving wheels, and twelve wheels in all, and a total weight of 115 tons.
Since the application of electric traction to street railways, it has frequently been said that it would eventually supersede the steam locomotive. In no instance, however, has it yet been applied to regular railway service, with heavy trains and long runs, nor is there yet any indication of increased economy or efficiency due to its use in such service. It is successfully used for local and suburban lines, but these form a class in themselves, and the conditions of operation are very different from those which obtain in ordinary service. The Baltimore & Ohio Railway has some heavy electric locomotives, but these are for hauling trains through a tunnel, to avoid the trouble and discomfort from the smoke and gases from the steam engines.
The early passenger cars were either open cars with cross seats, or had coach bodies on four-wheel platform cars. The coach-body cars on the Mohawk & Hudson Railway, in 1831, were 7 ft. 4 in. long and 5 ft. wide. In 1836 the American type of car was introduced on the Camden & Amboy Railway, having a long body mounted on two four-wheeled trucks. These cars seated 48 passengers, and cars for 60 passengers were in use in 1839, their cost being $2400. American day cars are now 60 to 80 ft. long, seating 60 to 84 passengers, and weighing from 30 to 47 tons. The standard day car of the Pennsylvania Railway is 60 ft. 7 in. long over all, and seats 66 passengers. Dining and sleeping cars weigh from 45 to 65 tons, much of the weight being due to the special equipment for the comfort and convenience of passengers, and consequently so much dead weight to be hauled. It can be said without dispute that in no other country have the railways done so much for the comfort and convenience of their passengers, and have charged so little therefor.
In Europe, the cars developed into the compartment system, with side doors, there being high transverse partitions with seats on each side, so that in a full compartment half the passengers must ride backward. The cars are usually short, with two or three axles, but about 1872 the American system of mounting cars on trucks was introduced, and longer cars on trucks are now somewhat extensively used. Within later years corridor cars have been introduced, with a corridor connecting the compartments. Such details as steam heat, toilet arrangements, ample light, luxurious finish, etc., which have long been a matter of course in this country, are quite “end of the century” improvements in Europe, and generally below the standards observed in this country.
AN AMERICAN FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE.
Sleeping cars were used on the Cumberland Valley Railway (U. S. A.) in 1836. In 1856, Mr. T. L. Woodruff built a sleeping car, and in 1857 two were built by Mr. Webster Wagner and operated on the New York Central Railway. Mr. George M. Pullman began his experiments in 1859, and in 1864 he put in service on the Chicago & Alton Railway the first sleeping car with the berth arrangements now almost universally used. He pushed the business more vigorously than his predecessors and acquired many of their patents. The Pullman Palace Car Co. was organized in 1867, and in 1879 its various works were all concentrated in a new industrial town—called Pullman—near Chicago. In 1898 the company owned 2,428 cars, which were operated on 121,236 miles of railway, ran 190,562,758 miles, and carried 4,852,400 passengers. Most of the cars are in the United States, but some are in Europe and Australia. The Wagner Palace Car Co. owns 560 sleeping cars and 143 parlor cars. In Europe most of the long distance sleeping and dining car service is operated by the International Sleeping Car Co., which runs cars between Paris and Constantinople (72 hours), Paris and St. Petersburg (120 hours), Calais and Brindisi (25 hours).
Passenger cars are now usually lighted by oil, the mineral oil used in America being superior to the vegetable oils commonly used in Europe. Oil gas, compressed in tanks, is very extensively used, and gives an excellent light. The system was invented by Mr. Julius Pintsch, and was introduced in Germany in 1873, and in the United States in 1881. It is now applied to about 85,000 cars in 22 countries; 32,000 of these cars being in Germany, 17,000 in Great Britain, and 15,000 in the United States. The electric light is as yet used only on a few of the finest express trains, the current being generated either from a steam engine and dynamo in the baggage car, or from a dynamo on each car, driven from one of the car axles. Storage batteries maintain the light when the cars are at rest. American cars were heated by stoves at a very early date, and this developed into the hot water system, with a stove and circulating pipes in each car. Steam from the locomotive, however, is now generally employed, and its use is compulsory in some States. In Europe the passengers have to rely largely upon their own wraps and rugs.
EXTERIOR OF LATEST SLEEPING CAR.
In American freight cars, great improvements have been introduced, increasing the carrying capacity while reducing the weight. The capacity has been increased from 10 tons of load in 1870, to 30, 40, and even 50 tons in 1899 (an increase of 300 to 500 per cent). The weight has increased only from 10 to 15 or 17 tons (or 50 to 70 per cent). Cars are now being built entirely of steel, and while their first cost is greater, the cost per ton and the expenses of maintenance are less than for wooden cars of similar capacity. As sleeping, dining, parlor, tourist, and other special cars have been introduced for passenger traffic, so refrigerator, stock, horse, fruit, poultry, and furniture cars have been introduced for special requirements in freight traffic. In other countries, however, the use of such special equipment is much more limited. The ordinary foreign freight cars are the same as those of 30 or 40 years ago, being short four-wheel cars, weighing 5 tons, and carrying 8 to 10 tons. These are not well adapted to the handling of bulk freight, and greatly increased economy and facility in such traffic would result from the introduction of the American system, as has been done in Australia. In modern American practice, too, the cars are equipped with automatic couplers and power brakes, thus greatly increasing the safety and facility of operating heavy fast trains. In 1893, Congress passed a law requiring that by January 1, 1898, all freight cars should be equipped with automatic couplers and enough cars equipped with power brakes (operated from the engine) to put the trains entirely under the control of the enginemen. The date was afterwards extended to January 1, 1900.
INTERIOR OF A PULLMAN SLEEPING CAR.
As the speed and weight of trains increased, the dangers due to lack of brake power soon became alarmingly apparent, and numerous forms of continuous brakes were devised, to be applied to the wheels of every car, under the control of the engineman. In 1889, the British government passed the Railways Regulation Act, making compulsory the use of the block system, the interlocking system, and continuous brakes. In England and some other foreign countries, the vacuum brake (introduced about 1871) is largely used, but it is slower in action than the compressed air brake, and is therefore less efficient for long, heavy, and fast trains.
The Westinghouse brake is one of the most important factors in the safe and efficient handling of heavy and fast trains. Mr. George Westinghouse patented his straight-air brake in 1869, his plain automatic brake in 1872, and his quick-action freight train brake in 1887, while in 1892 he introduced his high-speed brake for express trains. Up to the opening of 1899, the Westinghouse brake had been applied to about 55,500 locomotives and 912,000 cars, of which 34,300 locomotives, 50,000 passenger cars and 750,000 freight cars were on American railways. With this brake, a passenger train of 300 tons, traveling at 60 miles per hour, can be stopped in about 4500 feet and about 90 seconds, or in 1200 feet and 31 seconds in case of emergency. A freight train of 800 tons, running at 30 miles per hour, can be stopped in about 950 feet in 32 seconds, or in 300 feet and 11 seconds by an “emergency” application. Very few countries have applied continuous brakes to freight cars, except the United States and Canada, and (to some extent) Russia and New South Wales.
The improvement in train service has been even greater than that in train equipment, and this improvement has been in speed, accommodation, and number of trains. Among the notable runs are those across the American and European continents. The Canadian Pacific Railway starts a train daily from each end of the line for a through run of 2900 miles. In 1888, a through train service (with sleeping and dining cars) was instituted between Paris and Constantinople, about 1800 miles, and through trains are run twice a week between Paris and St. Petersburg, 1600 miles. There is also a similar service between Calais and Brindisi, 1200 miles, in connection with the mail steamers between England and India. In 1898, the Trans-Siberian Railway was completed to Irkutsk, and a through train service between St. Petersburg and that city, 3230 miles, was commenced.
Railway trains were at first intended to have speeds of about 10 to 20 miles per hour, the latter being looked upon as almost excessive, but much higher speeds were very soon attained. There has been almost from the earliest days a public demand for higher and higher speeds, with consequent rivalry between the railways. The United States and Great Britain (and France within the past few years) have the fastest trains and by far the greater number of fast trains. The highest recorded train speed is that of the Exposition Flyer, 270 tons total, upon the New York Central Railway, May 10th, 1893. It ran a distance of one mile at the rate of 112 miles per hour, and again, on the same date, maintained a speed of 100 miles per hour, through a distance of five miles. As a daily train between New York and Chicago, it maintained a rate of 60 to 75 miles an hour, throughout the entire 980 miles of distance.
RAILWAY SUSPENSION BRIDGE, NIAGARA FALLS.
It will be seen that the speed of “100-miles-an-hour,” which is popularly looked upon as a sort of ideal, has been more than once exceeded, but it may be well to explain that such spectacular bursts of speed are really less important and less wonderful than the trips of 50 to 1000 miles at speeds averaging 50 to 65 miles per hour for the entire journey. Taking into account the loss of time by stops at stations, by changing engines, by the resistance of long grades, etc., it will be easily understood that in order to maintain the average speed from start to finish, the actual speeds must often range from 60 to 75 or even 80 miles per hour. The regular daily transcontinental train of the Canadian Pacific Railway has an average speed of 30 miles per hour, but maintains this for the trip of 2906 miles, which occupies 94½ hours. This is a train and a record of which railway men in general, and those of the Canadian Pacific Railway in particular, may well be proud. There are no such through trains in the United States, but in 1876 a special theatre train was run from New York to San Francisco in 3 days 7⅔ hours. In 1889, the time of the transcontinental mails was 5 days 8¼ hours, but that same year it was reduced to 4 days 12¾ hours, which schedule continued in force until 1899. On January 1, 1899, a new mail service was inaugurated, making the 3408 miles in 98½ hours, or at an average of 34½ miles per hour, including all stops, and the transfer of mail bags across Chicago by wagon from one station to another. The actual running speed is often 60 to 75 miles per hour for long stretches. Engines are changed 18 times and postal crews 7 times.
Fast passenger trains are a popular attraction, but only railway men can fully appreciate the advantages and economies of heavy trains for handling freight traffic. In Europe coal trains weigh from 300 to 400 tons, but in the United States the weight of coal, ore, and freight trains is from 800 to 2000 tons. Automatic couplers and power brakes enable the freight trains to be run as fast as passenger trains, with entire safety; improved cars carry greater loads, and more powerful locomotives are continually being put in service to haul heavier trains. The heaviest trains on record are as follows: (1) Pennsylvania Railway, 130 cars, 5213 tons, or 5560 tons with engine and tender; (2) New York Central Railway, 81 cars, 3478 tons, or 3595 tons with engine and tender. Both these were run in 1898, the length of journey being 160 and 140 miles.
The mails were carried by rail between Baltimore and Washington in 1834, on recommendation of the Postmaster-General. The U. S. railway service was instituted in August, 1864, between Chicago and Clinton, and the following figures indicate its wonderful development:—
| 1880 | 1898 | |
|---|---|---|
| Mileage run by mail cars | 65,763,993 | 187,483,187 |
| Number of mail cars | —— | 3,649 |
| Number of mail clerks | 2,946 | 7,999 |
| Miles of railway operated over | 85,320 | 174,777 |
| Tons of mail carried | 368,000 | 1,432,050 |
The railway express business was started in 1838 by Mr. W. F. Harnden, on a suggestion from Mr. Josiah Quincy, who had to travel weekly from Boston to New York, and was in the habit of taking small packages for business acquaintances. Mr. Alvin Adams became associated with Mr. Harnden, and in 1845 formed the Adams Express Co. In Great Britain, this business is conducted by the parcels-post and the railway companies, but in other European countries it is mainly in the hands of the post-office department.
A very remarkable feature of railway development is that from the beginning there has been a tendency to increased traffic, better service, and a steady reduction in rates. In the United States the average rates per mile since 1867 have been as follows:—
| Year | Passenger, cents | Freight, cents |
|---|---|---|
| 1867 | 1.994 | 1.925 |
| 1870 | 2.392 | 1.889 |
| 1875 | 2.378 | 1.421 |
| 1880 | 2.442 | 1.232 |
| 1885 | 2.216 | 1.011 |
| 1890 | 2.167 | 0.941 |
| 1895 | 2.040 | 0.839 |
| 1896 | 2.019 | 0.806 |
HAGERMAN PASS ON COLORADO MIDLAND R. R.
While the reduction in passenger rates has been comparatively small, it must be remembered that the safety, speed, comfort, and service have greatly improved. The marked reduction in freight rates has been made possible only by a still greater and more remarkable reduction in the cost of transportation. This has been effected by consolidation of companies, by improvements in roadway, bridges, etc., and by the introduction of heavier trains, with engines of greater power and cars of greater capacity. This economy can be still further extended. The reduction in rates has been much greater than that in the prices of commodities. Rates for wheat and hay, for instance, have decreased 23 and 20 per cent more than the market prices, and the rate for shipping anthracite coal to tidewater has decreased 50 per cent in the past ten years, while the price of the coal has decreased only 10 per cent. The average freight rate on the Pennsylvania Railway in 1898 was 0.536 cent per ton per mile, while the cost was 0.369 cent. The cheapness of transportation in the United States is shown by the following figures for 1898:—
| Passengers carried one mile | 13,000,000,000 |
| Tons of freight carried one mile | 95,000,000,000 |
| Revenue from passenger service | $26,000,000 |
| Revenue from freight service | $62,000,000 |
| Distance railway carries 1 passenger to earn $1 profit | 500 miles |
| Distance railway carries 1 ton to earn $1 profit | 1530 miles |
| Average profit per passenger (including baggage) per mile | 2-10 cent |
| Average profit per ton per mile | 1-15 cent |
The lowest passenger rates in the world are on the Indian railways. In Europe the passenger rates average higher than in the United States, though the accommodation is inferior.
Railway transportation has almost entirely superseded barge, canal, and river transportation, except in special cases. This is due to the greater speed, the greater efficiency of service, the greater carrying capacity, and the extent to which spurs and branches are built to enable cars to reach mills, factories, and other industrial plants. It was for a long time held that the low rates of water transportation exerted an influence in keeping railway rates down, but with the present condition of the latter this no longer holds good as a general proposition, especially for the limited capacity of barge canals. The rates established for wheat and corn from Buffalo to New York by rail in 1899 are about 0.23 and 0.18 cent per ton per mile, which is but little above the canal rates, while rail shipments are much more advantageous.
The railway system is a vast employer of labor, directly and indirectly, and several million persons in the United States derive their support from the various railway industries, without taking into account such allied industries as rail mills, bridge works, locomotive works, and car works, etc. The number of direct railway employees (exclusive of the employees of terminal and sleeping-car companies, fast freight lines, etc.) is over 820,000, or over 1.2 per cent of the total population. A large proportion of these represent skilled labor of a high degree of intelligence. France has about 1110 employees per mile of railway, and 10 per cent of these are women. The figures for the United States and Great Britain are as follows:—
| United States | Great Britain | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1890 | 1897 | 1857 | 1889 | 1895 | |
| Miles of railway | 163,597 | 184,428 | 8,942 | 19,943 | 21,174 |
| Number of employees | 749,301 | 823,476 | 109,660 | 381,626 | 465,412 |
| Number of employees per 100 miles | 479 | 449 | 1,230 | 1,900 | 2,197 |
| Number of employees per cent of population | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 1.2 |
The railway service especially demands some better and more intimate relation between the employers and employees than that of the mere buying and selling of labor for a price. Both humanity and self-interest have led several railways in this country and abroad to establish relief departments, providing temporary financial aid in case of accident or sickness, with other forms of benefits in addition, the object being to induce men to continue permanently in the employ of the road. Such associations have existed in England since 1850, in Canada since 1873, and in the United States since 1880, when one was started by the Baltimore & Ohio Railway. In 1896 there were six of these associations in the United States, with an aggregate of about 125,000 members. The six railway systems owned 15 per cent of all the mileage and had 20 per cent of all the railway employees in the country.
Before closing this review of railway development, brief reference may be made to certain special classes of railways.
VIEW NEAR VERRUGAS, ON LINE OF OROYA RAILWAY, PERU.
Mountain Railways.—These include lines either isolated or forming part of main lines, having grades so steep as to require special means of traction. They may be operated by (A) cables, (B) grip rails, or (C) rack rails. Cables are used for many short lines, but are now rarely adopted for regular railway working. The grip rail system was first used on the Mont Cenis railway in 1867, and has been used in later years in Brazil and New Zealand. Rack rails were used in 1848 on the incline near Madison, Indiana (U. S. A.). In 1866 they were used on the Mount Washington railway (U. S. A.), (with the Marsh rack), this being the first mountain-climbing railway. In 1885, the Abt rack-rail system was introduced, and is a great improvement. It has been used both for ordinary railway service and for special mountain lines.
Rapid Transit.—Street or surface railways for city traffic date from 1831, in New York, and were operated by horses until 1873, when cable traction was introduced. Electric traction was introduced in Germany in 1881 and in the United States in 1884, and the growth of this system was such that in 1894 it was in use on 9000 miles in this country and 195 miles in Europe. Locomotives operated by steam, gas, compressed air, etc., have been used to a limited extent. For high speeds it was necessary to remove the railway from the street surface. The first elevated railway was built in New York in 1869, and now New York, Brooklyn, and Chicago have about 100 miles, operated by electricity and steam. The only foreign railway on this system is at Liverpool (England), the line being 5 miles long, and operated by electricity. The first underground railway was opened in London in 1863, and that city now has several miles of such railway, mostly operated by steam locomotives. Two underground electric lines are in operation and another is being built. Budapest (Hungary) and Boston (Mass.) have also underground electric railways. New York has for years needed and demanded a railway of this character, but political methods and extravagant demands for franchise rights have prevented the commencement of work upon the line.
Military Railways.—Railways cannot be made available to any extent for tactical purposes, but are of great importance as a means of supply and communication. They were used by the Russians in the Crimean war (1854), and were prominent features in some of the campaigns of the American Civil War (1861–65). In the Franco-German war (1870), the German army advancing on Paris was closely followed by a military railway, and in the Soudan campaign of 1898–99, the British army carried with it the head of a railway communicating with the base of supplies on the Nile.
Portable Railways.—These are narrow-gauge lines of light construction, for use on plantations, in lumbering operations, on engineering construction works, and for pioneer railways. The rails are riveted to steel ties, forming complete sections of track, straight or curved, which can be laid down, taken up, or shifted, as required. Such a line, of 24 inches gauge, was used to carry passengers around the grounds of the Paris Exhibition of 1889.
Ship Railways.—These are projected as substitutes for ship canals, but none have been built in modern times, if we except a few small ones for canal boats, including one at the Columbia River rapids, in Oregon (U. S. A.). One was proposed for the Isthmus of Suez in 1860, and in 1879 Captain Eads strongly advocated one across Tehuantepec (Mexico), to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This line would be about 150 miles in length, and the cost is estimated at $50,000,000. In 1888 work was commenced on the Chignecto ship railway (Canada), at the head of the Bay of Fundy, but it has never been completed. The general principle of the system is to float the ship into a dock and deposit it upon a wheeled cradle of suitable form. This would then be raised by machinery and hauled along the railway by a number of locomotives.
ADVANCE IN LAW AND JUSTICE
By LUTHER E. HEWITT, L.B.,
Librarian of Philadelphia Law Association.
I. International Law.—Exclusive rights asserted in past centuries have been succeeded by freedom of the seas and privileges on the rivers. The principle back of the American guns off the Barbary coasts has prevailed. Crimes of one country against another are punishable in either. Extradition for nonpolitical crimes is general. Expatriation has been won for those who would change their country. Internal affairs of countries are free from interference; but a rule may be so revolting, or so hurtful to foreign interests, as to justify intervention. The Monroe doctrine was intimated in the Declaration of Independence, and has developed with our country. Regard for other nations has increased. Protectorates and spheres of influence are respected, while recognition of insurgent States will not be hurried. Devastation and weapons causing needless pain are condemned, while guerillas are regulated by requirement of a responsible head, a badge recognizable at a distance, and subjection to rules of war. The sick and wounded, attendants, and appliances are protected from intentional attack.
Open, unfortified places are in practice spared, and ransoms no longer extorted. Twenty-four hours are allowed for withdrawal of noncombatants from places to be attacked. Military occupation no longer confers sovereign power; and compensation on the closing of war has been recommended for private property of an enemy used in military operations.
Impartial neutrality is demanded. Nations once bound themselves for troops in case others went to war. This has ceased. Passage of troops through neutral territory is not allowed. Even sick and wounded will be denied if their passage would relieve a combatant’s own lines; but neutrals have interned such refugees. The neutral cannot allow fitting out of armed expeditions or enlistment of troops. Jefferson advanced international law by demanding Genet’s recall for such offenses. Carriage of signals, dispatches, or persons in military operations is unneutral, and the United States insisted that this ruled the Trent affair. A belligerent’s ship of war can remain in port but twenty-four hours, unless in an emergency, like need of repairs. Coal will be afforded only to the nearest port, nor will a new supply be furnished within three months. Statutes enforce some of these rules. Neutral trade is not lost except on blockade, although goods which may be put to military uses are liable to seizure as contraband. “Free ships, free goods,” was long contended for; and at last the Declaration of Paris, in 1856, provided even further, as follows: (1) Privateering is and remains abolished. (2) The neutral flag covers enemy’s goods, with the exception of contraband of war. (3) Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under an enemy’s flag. (4) Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effectual. Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States declined to adhere to the Declaration. The United States adopted 2, 3, and 4, and offered to agree to the abolition of privateering if noncontraband property of the enemy were exempted under its own flag. The United States and Spain refrained from privateering in the recent war. Private property of the enemy on land has long been exempt from capture.
INDEPENDENCE HALL AND SQUARE. WINTER SCENE.
II. Law-Making Bodies.—State legislators were originally chosen from landed proprietors, except, perhaps, in Pennsylvania. Legislatures frequently had the selection of governors, judges, and other high officials, but the Ohio constitution in 1802 foreshadowed the coming democracy. Distrust has followed reliance on legislatures. Their sessions have been limited in about half the States to an average of less than ninety days, and almost everywhere made biennial. Increase of the members’ own compensation is forbidden. Their duties are carefully prescribed. Common requirements are, reading of bills on three days; one subject for a bill, and that expressed in title; recital of old law, upon revision; prohibition of riders on appropriations. Nearly half the States require a majority in each house of all members elected thereto. Constitutional restrictions on state and municipal indebtedness and loan followed the burdens assumed in the first exultation over inventions in transportation. The Pennsylvania constitution, for instance, prohibits “local or special laws” in about thirty cases, such as in municipal affairs, descent of property, judicial proceedings, remitting penalties, exemption from taxation, regulating labor, chartering corporations. Boundaries between legislative and judicial proceedings have been simplified; special legislation in marriage and divorce has been forbidden; appellate jurisdiction has been taken from Senates once possessing it. The British House of Lords retains such jurisdiction, but within it sit the great judges, and the lay lords almost never vote on appeals.
Payment of expenses of members was derived from England, and although abandoned there has continued here. Members of Congress give attendance remote from home, so that they receive salaries rather than compensation. Sums for expenses are allowed in the other American republics, in France, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, chiefly in the lower houses. Some are paid by the local constituency, but this tends to create classes. Representatives to Congress were generally elected at first on the State ticket, and in some States this continued until the Congress in 1872 required district election. The Revised Statutes appoint the day of their election, and require a printed or written ballot.
III. The Courts.—A feature of American jurisprudence which excites the wonder of foreigners is the power in the courts to declare legislative or executive acts void because unconstitutional. Before the Revolution the Rhode Island court struck down a statute contrary to the provincial charter; and a recent instance is the decision of the U. S. Supreme Court on the income tax. The power is exercised on individuals, without direct conflict between the great departments of government. The judicial power has otherwise widened. Civil trials without jury are frequent. In the counties judges exercise much administrative power. Road and bridge cases, grants of liquor licenses, appointments to educational and other offices, are illustrations. In what has been termed “government by injunction,” functions both of the executive and of the jury have been assumed. Perhaps this justifies the demand that all judges shall be elected by the people. Frequently the choice of judges was originally by the legislature, or by the governor, alone or with the approval of the senate. The judicial tenure of office has generally been lengthened to a term insuring a long service. In Pennsylvania, a supreme court judge holds office twenty-one years, a county judge ten years. Age limit prevails in some States. In a democracy, it is not surprising to find the doctrine sometimes asserted that juries in criminal cases are judges both of law and fact. In certain civil cases, the jury is a crude but powerful engine for holding corporations to strict responsibility for the citizens’ safety, although excessive or unfounded verdicts are to be deplored. Much of the old law of deodands has force to-day in subtler form. A feature to note in passing is the duty imposed on the judge to answer before the jury points of instruction framed by counsel.
IV. Civil Procedure.—Twenty-nine States and Territories rejoice in escape from puzzling classifications by substitution of simple statements. Extreme separation of law and equity had made the old condition worse. Equity might often soften legal principles, or law lend vigor to equity. Much of this has now been done; had been done, in fact, in Pennsylvania, from early days. Its enforcement of equitable rights through remedies at law was largely followed in the English Judicature Act of 1873 abolishing forms of actions at law and interblending law and equity. This statute has been copied largely in British colonies. England abolished the cumbrous system of real actions in 1834, and substituted simpler remedies for assertion of title.
The simplicity of present procedure is accompanied by ability to reach decision more promptly, and an old reproach has been greatly lessened.
V. Codification.—The New York Revised Statutes of 1828 embraced nearly the entire civil procedure, and in 1848 a “Code of Procedure” was adopted, although the original draftsman, David Dudley Field, complained bitterly of changes. Forty-two States now have more or less complete codes of practice; and criminal codes likewise are numerous. Codification of the branches of substantive law may be anticipated. Something of this is going on in England. The Bill of Sales Act, the Employers’ Liability Act, the Bills of Exchange Act, the Public Health (Scotland) Act of 1897, the Land Transfer Act of the same year, are instances. In Pennsylvania, there are codelets like the Evidence Act of 1887, or the Building Law for Philadelphia of 1893. Instances could be multiplied. A code intended for all the States on Negotiable Instruments has been prepared by commissioners, and has been adopted in New York, Connecticut, Colorado, and Florida. In Great Britain there has not been general codification, whereas the continental systems run largely that way, even in substantive law, being based on the Roman law.
VI. Criminal Jurisprudence.—The grand jury is no longer grand in many States; indeed, less than twelve members suffice in some; and their service may even be dispensed with under some Western constitutions. Individual malice has been avoided by the creation of public prosecuting attorneys. “Standing aside jurors” resulted from 33 Edward I., denying government challenge except for cause. It has been generally abolished, and the prosecution equalized by a number of peremptory challenges. Pennsylvania retains the old practice. Prisoners may now testify, but refusal is not to weigh against them. The statute 7 William III. allowed counsel in treason cases, but England did not extend the privilege to trials for other felonies until 1836. The courts in mitigation permitted counsel to prompt prisoners with questions. Penn’s charter gave prisoners privileges of witnesses and counsel, and this is now universal in American constitutions. Many States provide counsel for prisoners without means, some with compensation. “Standing mute” has become equivalent to a plea of not guilty. Unanimity in a verdict is essential to conviction of crime above misdemeanor, except in Utah, and there it is limited to capital cases. In civil and in minor criminal cases about a dozen constitutions in the far West or Southwest either recognize verdict by proportion of jury or else empower the legislature so to do. England refuses criminal appeals, but in this country they are allowed. The courts of this country have never been subservient to military passion, and all friends of the great French Republic must rejoice at the courage of the Court of Cassation in the Dreyfus case. The English law inflicted death for 160 crimes, some great and many otherwise, about the period of our Revolution, and in 1819 this number had become 200. American jurisprudence never had such stain of blood, yet 10 crimes were punishable with death in Massachusetts, and 20 in Delaware, at the time of the Revolution, and the pillory, stocks, shears, branding-irons, and lash were busy. Horrible prisons existed, filled with every foulness and immorality. The older penitentiary system has been modified in 20 States by the parole system under police supervision, and in 4 the policy of indeterminate sentences within fixed limits and ages has been adopted. Bertillon and other methods of identification have greatly lessened crime in England. The law of deodand, whereby the value of an object causing accidental death was forfeited for charities, was abolished in England in 1846. Societies to prevent cruelty to children, or to animals, attest the advance of refinement and humanity.
HON. MELVILLE W. FULLER.
(Chief Justice U. S. Supreme Court.)
VII. Capital Punishment.—In England, treason and felony, except petty larceny and mayhem, were punishable with death. The fiction by which males who could read were supposed to be of the clergy saved first offenders, who escaped with branding. In the eighteenth century, the fiction was forbidden, and death imposed on additional offenses, so that 160 crimes were so punishable. In 1826, the efforts of Sir Samuel Romilly and Sir James Mackintosh, and later of Sir John Russell, resulted in a more merciful spirit, and since 1861 murder, treason, and firing of the great dock yards, have been the only capital offenses. The American colonies were more humane, yet Massachusetts punished 10 and Delaware 20 crimes with death. Since the Revolution imprisonment has been the general penalty. In Maine, Wisconsin, and Colorado capital punishment has been abolished altogether; in Rhode Island, except where murder is committed by a life prisoner; in Michigan, except for treason. In some States, as in Ohio, the jury may avert the death penalty. New York and Iowa, after experiments, restored capital punishment. The federal law imposes death for murder, piracy, robbery on the high seas, rape, treason. The introduction of degrees of murder has reduced the number of executions. In New York, electrocution has been substituted for hanging. Capital punishment has been abolished or qualified in the Argentine Republic, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Holland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Switzerland (in eight cantons), and in Venezuela.
VIII. Police Power.—The citizen of the present day is protected by the police power to a degree which, perhaps, would have seemed marvelous a century ago. The sale of food is governed both in quality and quantity; building laws prescribe yards for light and air, height and thickness of walls, and forbid wooden buildings in many populous centres. Explosives are placed under strict regulations. Health laws protect from impurity of food and from pestilence, establish quarantines, deny the importation of rags, cattle, etc., likely to breed disease; medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, and nursing are protected from ignorance; immigration laws exclude persons or races deemed uncongenial or objectionable; railroads are subjected to provisions promoting safety, comfort, and impartiality of service; lotteries, gambling, threatening letters are forbidden; game laws preserve the various species from extinction; women and children are guarded by special laws. Almost the entire body of this division of law is new to this century, and much of it is recent.
IX. Married Women.—In 1800, a husband could appropriate his wife’s personal property not held in trust, and use her realty while he lived. Except for necessaries or for her separate estate, she could not contract. Her emancipation began in 1839, in Mississippi, and now her property, under the statutory interests secured to her by laws generally prevailing, is hers free from control or interference. This statutory estate includes property inherited, or derived by purchase or gift, or in some States by labor. The wife’s power to contract has been extended, and in some States has little restriction beyond perhaps inability to become surety. Before this era, some States, acting on a London custom, had allowed feme sole traders in cases of mariners’ wives, or of desertion or neglect.
X. Children.—Regulation of the labor of children in hours and employments is usual, debarring them from workshops and factories at certain ages and from occupations dangerous to their morals, as in theatricals, circuses, rag picking, mendicancy, street music. Laws prohibit their entrance into gambling, or worse, houses, into pool rooms, or unaccompanied into dance or concert halls, roller rinks, vaudeville theatres. Minnesota excludes them from criminal trials. Sale of liquor to minors is prohibited. Numerous recent statutes prohibit sales of cigarettes, cigars, or tobacco, and Utah and West Virginia forbid sales of opium. Oregon and Rhode Island prohibit their public use of tobacco. New Hampshire, Indiana, and Connecticut forbid children over three in almshouses. North Carolina makes it a misdemeanor to leave a child under seven, and unattended, exposed to fire. Prohibiting employment inconsistent with school attendance is usual. Compulsory education exists in twenty-nine States and two Territories, and largely throughout Europe and the colonies. Fourteen is the more frequent limit of age. Children’s welfare now determines their custody, rather than the rights of either parent. Laws in some States protect children more or less from wills made before their birth by parents. Many States provide that bastards may inherit from their mother or from each other, and she from them, and that their parents’ marriage legitimates them.
XI. Real Estate.—Ownership of land is no longer embarrassed by joint tenancies, nor need conveyancing resort to cumbrous fine and recovery; while transfer has been further lightened by title companies pending the adoption, likely, of the Torrens system of registration and certificate. Democracy has rejected distinctions of sex or age in inheritance, and the half-blood may share in many States after certain degrees. Disability of aliens to hold lands has been removed in some States, in others there are limitations in acres, value, or time, while in some disability ceases on declaration of intention to become a citizen. The English doctrine of tacking, whereby ownership of earlier and later incumbrances cut out intermediate titles, mortgages, etc., is inconsistent with the American recording acts.
XII. Copyright.—After printing became general, the author received some, if inadequate, protection, in England through the Stationers’ Company, or sometimes through particular privilege; in continental countries, through such privilege. The statute of Anne confined him to such years, etc., as it specified, and the courts have decided with hesitation that there was no copyright at common law. The statutory rights have varied. Since 1831 the copyright period in this country is 28 years, with 14 more if author, widow, or children are living at expiration of first term; and in England since 1842 it is 28 years or author’s life, whichever is longer.
The first known copyright directed to an author was granted by Venice in 1491. In 1791 France allowed copyright to all dramatists, extending it in 1793 to authors in general. Countries in sympathy with France adopted the policy. Prussia in 1794 extended copyright to authors represented by publishers at the Frankfort and Leipzig book fairs. General protection has now come about, aided by consolidation of European states into great nations. International copyright began with separate treaties; and the movement culminated in the Berne Convention of 1887, participated in by Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Hayti, Italy, Switzerland, Tunis, Great Britain, Liberia. Authors resident in any country which was a party to the Convention may have copyright in the other countries. The United States did not join, although it had and since has had treaties with a few nations exchanging such protection. The International Copyright Law of 1891, however, protects foreign authors but not foreign publishers, it being required that the printing shall be done in this country.
XIII. Admiralty.—The difference between the majestic rivers of America and English streams was recognized in the case of “The Genesee Chief,” wherein the Supreme Court rejected the English doctrine that admiralty has no jurisdiction except on the seas or where the tides ebb and flow. This has insured uniformity in the regulations of travel and commerce, and has protected such waters from local interference. International rules to prevent collisions at sea have been joined in by the United States. By acts of 1851 and 1884, Congress relieved innocent shipowners of liability for merchandise destroyed by fire, and provided that liability in case of collision, embezzlement by crew, etc., shall not exceed the owner’s interest. The Harter Act of 1893 provides that on due diligence neither owners nor charterers shall be liable for faults in navigation or in management, nor for perils of the sea, defects in goods, etc., but prohibits agreements relieving from liability for injuries caused by neglect in fitting out, provisioning and manning the vessel, stowing the cargo, or in caring for or delivery of the same. Parliament, in 1890, protected seamen from commercial greed by requiring load lines to be marked on vessels at a height fixed by the Board of Trade.
XIV. Corporations.—The source of corporate life was formerly the king; to-day, the charters are virtually the general corporation law, and special incorporation is forbidden. For a season, minor amendments for particular companies were tolerated, but constitutions are forbidding even these. Applications for charters must state such particulars as name, nature, and place of business, amount of stock, limit of indebtedness, number and names of directors. Annual reports must be lodged with the tax authorities.
Doctrines respecting corporations have wonderfully changed. The Dartmouth College case held that charters were contracts and could not be impaired; and thereafter, by constitution or otherwise, the States provided that all new charters should be subject to alteration or repeal, although even this does not authorize radical change of corporate character. American law has recognized advantage of freedom in execution of corporate affairs. It has dispensed with the burdensome requirement of seal to contracts, and even in England the corporate seal is unnecessary, unless in unusual transactions. The American courts uphold negotiable notes and bonds given in authorized business. The company is confined to the business for which it was created, although a cautious tolerance exists in respect to related enterprises; and mortgages may be acquired if for debts contracted previously and not as a device. The old theory was that a company could not be held for misfeasance, since it could not authorize its agents to commit wrong; but corporations are now held for many torts sanctioned by them, such as trespass, assault and battery, infringement of patents, negligence, and even fraud and libel. Exemplary damages may be awarded against them. One or another kind has even been subjected to indictment, in cases of nuisance, violation of Sunday law, maintenance of disorderly house, habitual omission of lights or signals, etc. They may be guilty of contempt. They may be punished by penalties and forfeitures.
A corporation outside its own State cannot exceed either its own charter or the power granted like companies of the other State. Connecting railways are sometimes adopted in each of several States, but the parts remain foreign to each other as respects jurisdiction in the federal courts. Foreign corporations are subject to the police power, but not to interference by the State in their interstate commerce, except Congress so authorizes. Companies not engaged in interstate commerce nor in governmental service may have conditions placed upon their entry into a State, and may be practically excluded by taxation. Property within the foreign State is alone taxable there, but the value of the franchise may be considered. Usually, statements are required showing location of agent, names of officers, etc. Contracts made before compliance are differently regarded, being void in some States, and only until compliance in some others, and in some not void at all where penalty is imposed. Some States seek revenue by lax laws inviting outside companies. Thus, by Delaware law of 1899, companies need not oblige themselves to keep their original books nor hold their meetings there, assessment beyond subscription is forbidden, and taxation is light.
STATE, WAR AND NAVY BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D. C.
In 1825 and 1827 the free organization of trades-unions and banking associations was authorized, and thus was introduced into English jurisprudence the principle of free association familiar to the Roman Republic. In 1838, but more especially in 1844, limited partnerships with transferable shares were authorized by general law; and in 1862 freedom from liability beyond subscription was somewhat recognized. A form of partnership, société anonyme, has been known in France for six hundred years, and by law of 1867 may be organized without special leave. The managers alone assume full responsibility, and the association bears now a company name. Germany adopted the principle of general incorporation in 1870, as have the greater nations, excepting Russia and Austria.
So early as 1784 New York enacted a general incorporation law for churches, and for libraries in 1796. In 1811, woolen, glass, and some other manufactures were thus favored. The principle widened out, was adopted elsewhere, and became quite general by 1850. Pennsylvania adopted the policy in 1874, although its religious, library and charitable organizations had enjoyed such law since 1791.
XV. Religion.—Scorned, lashed, thrown into prison, his tongue cut out, banished to savage woods, such was the fate of the Massachusetts Quaker among the first settlers, and Roger Williams shared little better. A long stride had been taken when, in 1691, the Massachusetts charter proclaimed liberty of conscience for all “except papists.” Then was the brave and gentle Penn securing religious liberty to all confessing one God. Yet much further progress was essential. Roman Catholics were excluded from office except in New York and Maryland; while even in Pennsylvania no Jew could sit in the legislature. Most of the States required some religious test for higher offices; Massachusetts allowed no voters or officials outside of the Congregational church; and church membership was essential in Connecticut and New Hampshire. In 1776 Pennsylvania admitted to the legislature any who believed in God and in a future state of rewards and punishments. Massachusetts threw down the barriers to office in 1780, except that until 1821 the governor should be of the Christian faith; but office-holding was limited to Protestants in North Carolina until 1835, and in New Hampshire until 1877. Jews received the same rights as other sects in Connecticut in 1843, in Maryland in 1825. The Virginia Bill of Rights declared that all are entitled to the free exercise of religion, and a few years afterwards, in 1786, proclaimed further in words written by Jefferson that religious opinions shall never affect civil capacities, and that no man can be compelled to support religious worship. The Lake region was secured from molestation for religious sentiments by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and the Constitution not only secures all from such interference by Congress, but prohibits religious test for federal offices or establishment of religion by Congress. South Carolina made the Episcopal the State church in 1776, but dropped establishment in 1790. Support of religion was likewise abolished in Maryland in 1810, but continued in Massachusetts until 1833; and New Hampshire authorizes public Protestant teachers of religion. Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee exclude clergymen from office. Political hierarchies and polygamy are not within constitutional protections. Courts have declared Christianity part of the common law; but in present law its force is in its principles. Christian institutions, in common with other religious or charitable agencies, are favored in policies and exemptions; and blasphemies, like railings in general, are forbidden. Bible reading in public schools is generally discretionary with the school board, although held illegal in Wisconsin; but religious garbs may not be worn in such schools by teachers. A public hospital may not be erected on sectarian ground.
The English corporation and test acts excluded from office all without the established church, until 9 George IV.
XVI. Summary of Advance.—Increased respect for the rights of others, both individually and as nations, characterizes the law of this century, and may be perceived in every direction. It has created a new international law, developed democratic institutions at home and abroad, almost revolutionized criminal jurisprudence, extended the police power in every direction, and secured freedom of conscience and separation of church and state. It has emancipated woman, thrown a protecting care over children, and favored charities, asylums, houses of refuge. Imprisonment for honest debts has been abolished, and the wretched sight of debtors imprisoned for paltry sums no longer reproaches society. Homestead and exemption laws preserve the family. Honest bankrupts are again lifted up in hope. The legal means of settlement and recovery of rights has been greatly expedited. England has followed America in making lands assets for payment of debts; and claims against the State have received recognition in some of the States and under act of Congress, and likewise in England. Barriers excluding persons as witnesses have been broken down, first in Connecticut in 1848, next in England in 1851, and now there is little exclusion unless the adversary has died. Something had been done before in compelling answers to written interrogatories, but with a weakness and lack of logic that should have ridiculed the whole exclusion. Promotion of uniformity of laws has engaged the attention of State commissioners, who have drafted a code concerning negotiable instruments which has been adopted in four States. Constitutional amendment has afforded an entire race opportunity to develop from the low estate of slavery into such condition as the future shall manifest. Questions of civil rights, due process of law, and of equal protection and privilege, are constantly bringing State laws before the federal courts, as do questions of interstate commerce. Anti-pool and anti-trust enactments mark both federal and State law, and lately have broken up the alliance of the trans-Missouri transportation companies. Inheritance and succession taxes were imposed in Pennsylvania in 1826, and now are found in some dozen States. The progressive feature, or increase of rate with increase of estate, has been sustained by high authority. Congress has imposed such taxes, but its power to do so is in dispute before the United States Supreme Court.
PORTIA AND BASSANIO.
(Trial Scene from “Merchant of Venice.”)
In the early days of the republic property requirements existed both for office and for voting. New States came in with manhood suffrage established either by law or custom. Original States threw open the polls,—Maryland in 1810, Connecticut in 1818, New York in 1821, Massachusetts in 1822. The white labor of Virginia was denied the suffrage in 1830, but gained it in 1850. Similar movement in England is marked by the Reform Bill of 1832; and now manhood suffrage is universal in Germany, France, and Greece, and wellnigh so in England.