FOOTNOTE:

[1] This right, however, is not absolute, but depends on the custom

of the port (_Raitt_ v. _Mitchell_, 1815, 4 Camp. 146).

LIERRE (Flemish, _Lier_), a town in the province of Antwerp, Belgium; 9

m. S.E. of Antwerp. Pop. (1904) 24,229. It carries on a brisk industry

in silk fabrics. Its church of St Gommaire was finished in 1557 and

contains three fine glass windows, the gift of the archduke Maximilian,

to celebrate his wedding with Mary of Burgundy.

LIESTAL, the capital (since 1833) of the half canton of Basel-Stadt in

Switzerland. It is a well-built but uninteresting industrial town,

situated on the left bank of the Ergolz stream, and is the most populous

town in the entire canton of Basel, after Basel itself. By rail it is 9¼

m. S.E. of Basel, and 15¾ m. N.W. of Olten. In the 15th-century town

hall (_Rathaus_) is preserved the golden drinking cup of Charles the

Bold, duke of Burgundy, which was taken at the battle of Nancy in 1477.

In 1900 the population was 5403, all German-speaking and mainly

Protestants. The town was sold in 1302 by its lord to the bishop of

Basel who, in 1400, sold it to the city of Basel, at whose hands it

suffered much in the Peasants' War of 1653, and so consented gladly to

the separation of 1833.

LIEUTENANT, one who takes the place, office and duty of and acts on

behalf of a superior or other person. The word in English preserves the

form of the French original (from _lieu_, place, _tenant_, holding),

which is the equivalent of the Lat. _locum tenens_, one holding the

place of another. The usual English pronunciation appears early, the

word being frequently spelled _lieftenant_, _lyeftenant_ or _luftenant_

in the 14th and 15th centuries. The modern American pronunciation is

_lewtenant_, while the German is represented by the present form of the

word _Leutnant_. In French history, _lieutenant du roi_ (_locum tenens

regis_) was a title borne by the officer sent with military powers to

represent the king in certain provinces. With wider powers and

functions, both civil as well as military, and holding authority

throughout an entire province, such a representative of the king was

called _lieutenant général du roi_. The first appointment of these

officials dates from the reign of Philip IV. the Fair (see CONSTABLE).

In the 16th century the administration of the provinces was in the hands

of _gouverneurs_, to whom the _lieutenants du roi_ became subordinates.

The titles _lieutenant civil_ or _criminel_ and _lieutenant général de

police_ have been borne by certain judicial officers in France (see

CHÂTELET and BAILIFF: _Bailli_). As the title of the representative of

the sovereign, "lieutenant" in English usage appears in the title of the

lord lieutenant of Ireland, and of the lords lieutenant of the counties

of the United Kingdom (see below).

The most general use of the word is as the name of a grade of naval and

military officer. It is common in this application to nearly every navy

and army of the present day. In Italy and Spain the first part of the

word is omitted, and an Italian and Spanish officer bearing this rank

are called _tenente_ or _teniente_ respectively. In the British and most

other navies the lieutenants are the commissioned officers next in rank

to commanders, or second class of captains. Originally the lieutenant

was a soldier who aided, and in case of need replaced, the captain, who,

until the latter half of the 17th century, was not necessarily a seaman

in any navy. At first one lieutenant was carried, and only in the

largest ships. The number was gradually increased, and the lieutenants

formed a numerous corps. At the close of the Napoleonic War in 1815

there were 3211 lieutenants in the British navy. Lieutenants now often

qualify for special duties such as navigation, or gunnery, or the

management of torpedoes. In the British army a lieutenant is a subaltern

officer ranking next below a captain and above a second lieutenant. In

the United States of America subalterns are classified as first

lieutenants and second lieutenants. In France the two grades are

_lieutenant_ and _sous-lieutenant_, while in Germany the _Leutnant_ is

the lower of the two ranks, the higher being _Ober-leutnant_ (formerly

_Premier-leutnant_). A "captain lieutenant" in the British army was

formerly the senior subaltern who virtually commanded the colonel's

company or troop, and ranked as junior captain, or "puny captain," as he

was called by Cromwell's soldiers.

The lord lieutenant of a county, in England and Wales and in Ireland,

is the principal officer of a county. His creation dates from the

reign of Henry VIII. (or, according to some, Edward VI.), when the

military functions of the sheriff were handed over to him. He was

responsible for the efficiency of the militia of the county, and

afterwards of the yeomanry and volunteers. He was commander of these

forces, whose officers he appointed. By the Regulation of the Forces

Act 1871, the jurisdiction, duties and command exercised by the lord

lieutenant were revested in the crown, but the power of recommending

for first appointments was reserved to the lord lieutenant. By the

Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907, the lord lieutenant of a

county was constituted president of the county association. The office

of lord lieutenant is honorary, and is held during the royal pleasure,

but virtually for life. Appointment to the office is by letters patent

under the great seal. Usually, though not necessarily, the person

appointed lord lieutenant is also appointed custos rotulorum (q.v.).

Appointments to the county bench of magistrates are usually made on

the recommendation of the lord lieutenant (see JUSTICE OF THE PEACE).

A deputy lieutenant (denoted frequently by the addition of the letters

D.L. after a person's name) is a deputy of a lord lieutenant of a

county. His appointment and qualifications previous to 1908 were

regulated by the Militia Act 1882. By s. 30 of that act the lieutenant

of each county was required from time to time to appoint such properly

qualified persons as he thought fit, living within the county, to be

deputy lieutenants. At least twenty had to be appointed for each

county, if there were so many qualified; if less than that number were

qualified, then all the duly qualified persons in the county were to

be appointed. The appointments were subject to the sovereign's

approval, and a return of all appointments to, and removals from, the

office had to be laid before parliament annually. To qualify for the

appointment of deputy lieutenant a person had to be (a) a peer of the

realm, or the heir-apparent of such a peer, having a place of

residence within the county; or (b) have in possession an estate in

land in the United Kingdom of the yearly value of not less than £200;

or (c) be the heir-apparent of such a person; or (d) have a clear

yearly income from personalty within the United Kingdom of not less

than £200 (s. 33). If the lieutenant were absent from the United

Kingdom, or through illness or other cause were unable to act, the

sovereign might authorize any three deputy lieutenants to act as

lieutenant (s. 31), or might appoint a deputy lieutenant to act as

vice-lieutenant. Otherwise, the duties of the office were practically

nominal, except that a deputy lieutenant might attest militia recruits

and administer the oath of allegiance to them. The reorganization in

1907 of the forces of the British crown, and the formation of county

associations to administer the territorial army, placed increased

duties on deputy lieutenants, and it was publicly announced that the

king's approval of appointments to that position would only be given

in the case of gentlemen who had served for ten years in some force of

the crown, or had rendered eminent service in connexion with a county

association.

The lord lieutenant of Ireland is the head of the executive in that

country. He represents his sovereign and maintains the formalities of

government, the business of government being entrusted to the

department of his chief secretary, who represents the Irish

government in the House of Commons, and may have a seat in the

cabinet. The chief secretary occupies an important position, and in

every cabinet either the lord lieutenant or he has a seat.

Lieutenant-governor is the title of the governor of an Indian

province, in direct subordination to the governor-general in council.

The lieutenant-governor comes midway in dignity between the governors

of Madras and Bombay, who are appointed from England, and the chief

commissioners of smaller provinces. In the Dominion of Canada the

governors of provinces also have the title of lieutenant-governor. The

representatives of the sovereign in the Isle of Man and the Channel

Islands are likewise styled lieutenant-governors.

LIFE, the popular name for the activity peculiar to protoplasm (q.v.).

This conception has been extended by analogy to phenomena different in

kind, such as the activities of masses of water or of air, or of

machinery, or by another analogy, to the duration of a composite

structure, and by imagination to real or supposed phenomena such as the

manifestations of incorporeal entities. From the point of view of exact

science life is associated with matter, is displayed only by living

bodies, by all living bodies, and is what distinguishes living bodies

from bodies that are not alive. Herbert Spencer's formula that life is

"the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations"

was the result of a profound and subtle analysis, but omits the

fundamental consideration that we know life only as a quality of and in

association with living matter.

In developing our conception we must discard from consideration the

complexities that arise from the organization of the higher living

bodies, the differences between one living animal and another, or

between plant and animal. Such differentiations and integrations of

living bodies are the subject-matter of discussions on evolution; some

will see in the play of circumambient media, natural or supernatural, on

the simplest forms of living matter, sufficient explanation of the

development of such matter into the highest forms of living organisms;

others will regard the potency of such living matter so to develop as a

mysterious and peculiar quality that must be added to the conception of

life. Choice amongst these alternatives need not complicate

investigation of the nature of life. The explanation that serves for the

evolution of living matter, the vehicle of life, will serve for the

evolution of life. What we have to deal with here is life in its

simplest form.

The definition of life must really be a description of the essential

characters of life, and we must set out with an investigation of the

characters of living substance with the special object of detecting the

differences between organisms and unorganized matter, and the

differences between dead and living organized matter.

Living substance (see PROTOPLASM), as it now exists in all animals and

plants, is particulate, consisting of elementary organisms living

independently, or grouped in communities, the communities forming the

bodies of the higher animals and plants. These small particles or larger

communities are subject to accidents, internal or external, which

destroy them, immediately or slowly, and thus life ceases; or they may

wear out, or become clogged by the products of their own activity. There

is no reason to regard the mortality of protoplasm and the consequent

limited duration of life as more than the necessary consequence of

particulate character of living matter (see LONGEVITY).

Protoplasm, the living material, contains only a few elements, all of

which are extremely common and none of which is peculiar to it. These

elements, however, form compounds characteristic of living substance and

for the most part peculiar to it. Proteid, which consists of carbon,

hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur, is present in all protoplasm, is

the most complex of all organic bodies, and, so far, is known only from

organic bodies. A multitude of minor and simpler organic compounds, of

which carbohydrates and fats are the best known, occur in different

protoplasm in varying forms and proportions, and are much less isolated

from the inorganic world. They may be stages in the elaboration or

disintegration of protoplasm, and although they were at one time

believed to occur only as products of living matter, are gradually

being conquered by the synthetic chemist. Finally, protoplasm contains

various inorganic substances, such as salts and water, the latter giving

it its varying degrees of liquid consistency.

We attain, therefore, our first generalized description of life as the

property or peculiar quality of a substance composed of none but the

more common elements, but of these elements grouped in various ways to

form compounds ranging from proteid, the most complex of known

substances to the simplest salts. The living substance, moreover, has

its mixture of elaborate and simple compounds associated in a fashion

that is peculiar. The older writers have spoken of protoplasm or the

cell as being in a sense "manufactured articles"; in the more modern

view such a conception is replaced by the statement that protoplasm and

the cell have behind them a long historical architecture. Both ideas, or

both modes of expressing what is fundamentally the same idea, have this

in common, that life is not a sum of the qualities of the chemical

elements contained in protoplasm, but a function first of the peculiar

architecture of the mixture, and then of the high complexity of the

compounds contained in the mixture. The qualities of water are no sum of

the qualities of oxygen and hydrogen, and still less can we expect to

explain the qualities of life without regard to the immense complexity

of the living substance.

We must now examine in more detail the differences which exist or have

been alleged to exist between living organisms and inorganic bodies.

There is no essential difference in structure. Confusion has arisen in

regard to this point from attempts to compare organized bodies with

crystals, the comparison having been suggested by the view that as

crystals present the highest type of inorganic structure, it was

reasonable to compare them with organic matter. Differences between

crystals and organized bodies have no bearing on the problem of life,

for organic substance must be compared with a liquid rather than with a

crystal, and differs in structure no more from inorganic liquids than

these do amongst themselves, and less than they differ from crystals.

Living matter is a mixture of substances chiefly dissolved in water; the

comparison with the crystals has led to a supposed distinction in the

mode of growth, crystals growing by the superficial apposition of new

particles and living substance by intussusception. But inorganic liquids

also grow in the latter mode, as when a soluble substance is added to

them.

The phenomena of movement do not supply any absolute distinction.

Although these are the most obvious characters of life, they cannot be

detected in quiescent seeds, which we know to be alive, and they are

displayed in a fashion very like life by inorganic foams brought in

contact with liquids of different composition. Irritability, again,

although a notable quality of living substance, is not peculiar to it,

for many inorganic substances respond to external stimulation by

definite changes. Instability, again, which lies at the root of

Spencer's definition "continuous adjustment of internal relations to

external relations" is displayed by living matter in very varying

degrees from the apparent absolute quiescence of frozen seeds to the

activity of the central nervous system, whilst there is a similar range

amongst inorganic substances.

The phenomena of reproduction present no fundamental distinction. Most

living bodies, it is true, are capable of reproduction, but there are

many without this capacity, whilst, on the other hand, it would be

difficult to draw an effective distinction between that reproduction of

simple organisms which consists of a sub-division of their substance

with consequent resumption of symmetry by the separate pieces, and the

breaking up of a drop of mercury into a number of droplets.

Consideration of the mode of origin reveals a more real if not an

absolute distinction. All living substance so far as is known at present

(see BIOGENESIS) arises only from already existing living substance. It

is to be noticed, however, that green plants have the power of building

up living substance from inorganic material, and there is a certain

analogy between the building up of new living material only in

association with pre-existing living material, and the greater readiness

with which certain inorganic reactions take place if there already be

present some trace of the result of the reaction.

The real distinction between living matter and inorganic matter is

chemical. Living substance always contains proteid, and although we know

that proteid contains only common inorganic elements, we know neither

how these are combined to form proteid, nor any way in which proteid can

be brought into existence except in the presence of previously existing

proteid. The central position of the problem of life lies in the

chemistry of proteid, and until that has been fully explored, we are

unable to say that there is any problem of life behind the problem of

proteid.

Comparison of living and lifeless organic matter presents the initial

difficulty that we cannot draw an exact line between a living and a dead

organism. The higher "warm-blooded" creatures appear to present the

simplest case and in their life-history there seems to be a point at

which we can say "that which was alive is now dead." We judge from some

major arrest of activity, as when the heart ceases to beat. Long after

this, however, various tissues remain alive and active, and the event to

which we give the name of death is no more than a superficially visible

stage in a series of changes. In less highly integrated organisms, such

as "cold-blooded" vertebrates, the point of death is less conspicuous,

and when we carry our observations further down the scale of animal

life, there ceases to be any salient phase in the slow transition from

life to death.

The distinction between life and death is made more difficult by a

consideration of cases of so-called "arrested vitality." If credit can

be given to the stories of Indian fakirs, it appears that human beings

can pass voluntarily into a state of suspended animation that may last

for weeks. The state of involuntary trance, sometimes mistaken for

death, is a similar occurrence. A. Leeuwenhoek, in 1719, made the

remarkable discovery, since abundantly confirmed, that many animalculae,

notably tardigrades and rotifers, may be completely desiccated and

remain in that condition for long periods without losing the power of

awaking to active life when moistened with water. W. Preyer has more

recently investigated the matter and has given it the name "anabiosis."

Later observers have found similar occurrences in the cases of small

nematodes, rotifers and bacteria. The capacity of plant seeds to remain

dry and inactive for very long periods is still better known. It has

been supposed that in the case of the plant seeds and still more in that

of the animals, the condition of anabiosis was merely one in which the

metabolism was too faint to be perceptible by ordinary methods of

observation, but the elaborate experiments of W. Kochs would seem to

show that a complete arrest of vital activity is compatible with

viability. The categories, "alive" and "dead," are not sufficiently

distinct for us to add to our conception of life by comparing them. A

living organism usually displays active metabolism of proteid, but the

metabolism may slow down, actually cease and yet reawaken; a dead

organism is one in which the metabolism has ceased and does not

reawaken.

_Origin of Life._--It is plain that we cannot discuss adequately the

origin of life or the possibility of the artificial construction of

living matter (see ABIOGENESIS and BIOGENESIS) until the chemistry of

protoplasm and specially of proteid is more advanced. The investigations

of O. Bütschli have shown how a model of protoplasm can be manufactured.

Very finely triturated soluble particles are rubbed into a smooth paste

with an oil of the requisite consistency. A fragment of such a paste

brought into a liquid in which the solid particles are soluble, slowly

expands into a honeycomb like foam, the walls of the minute vesicles

being films of oil, and the contents being the soluble particles

dissolved in droplets of the circumambient liquid. Such a model,

properly constructed, that is to say, with the vesicles of the foam

microscopic in size, is a marvellous imitation of the appearance of

protoplasm, being distinguishable from it only by a greater symmetry.

The nicely balanced conditions of solution produce a state of unstable

equilibrium, with the result that internal streaming movements and

changes of shape and changes of position in the model simulate closely

the corresponding manifestations in real protoplasm. The model has no

power of recuperation; in a comparatively short time equilibrium is

restored and the resemblance with protoplasm disappears. But it suggests

a method by which, when the chemistry of protoplasm and proteid is

better known, the proper substances which compose protoplasm may be

brought together to form a simple kind of protoplasm.

It has been suggested from time to time that conditions very unlike

those now existing were necessary for the first appearance of life, and

must be repeated if living matter is to be constructed artificially. No

support for such a view can be derived from observations of the existing

conditions of life. The chemical elements involved are abundant; the

physical conditions of temperature pressure and so forth at which living

matter is most active, and within the limits of which it is confined,

are familiar and almost constant in the world around us. On the other

hand, it may be that the initial conditions for the synthesis of proteid

are different from those under which proteid and living matter display

their activities. E. Pflüger has argued that the analogies between

living proteid and the compounds of cyanogen are so numerous that they

suggest cyanogen as the starting-point of protoplasm. Cyanogen and its

compounds, so far as we know, arise only in a state of incandescent

heat. Pflüger suggests that such compounds arose when the surface of the

earth was incandescent, and that in the long process of cooling,

compounds of cyanogen and hydrocarbons passed into living protoplasm by

such processes of transformation and polymerization as are familiar in

the chemical groups in question, and by the acquisition of water and

oxygen. His theory is in consonance with the interpretation of the

structure of protoplasm as having behind it a long historical

architecture and leads to the obvious conclusion that if protoplasm be

constructed artificially it will be by a series of stages and that the

product will be simpler than any of the existing animals or plants.

Until greater knowledge of protoplasm and particularly of proteid has

been acquired, there is no scientific room for the suggestion that there

is a mysterious factor differentiating living matter from other matter

and life from other activities. We have to scale the walls, open the

windows, and explore the castle before crying out that it is so

marvellous that it must contain ghosts.

As may be supposed, theories of the origin of life apart from doctrines

of special creation or of a primitive and slow spontaneous generation

are mere fantastic speculations. The most striking of these suggests an

extra-terrestrial origin. H. E. Richter appears to have been the first

to propound the idea that life came to this planet as cosmic dust or in

meteorites thrown off from stars and planets. Towards the end of the

19th century Lord Kelvin (then Sir W. Thomson) and H. von Helmholtz

independently raised and discussed the possibility of such an origin of

terrestrial life, laying stress on the presence of hydrocarbons in

meteoric stones and on the indications of their presence revealed by the

spectra of the tails of comets. W. Preyer has criticized such views,

grouping them under the phrase "theory of cosmozoa," and has suggested

that living matter preceded inorganic matter. Preyer's view, however,

enlarges the conception of life until it can be applied to the phenomena

of incandescent gases and has no relation to ideas of life derived from

observation of the living matter we know.

REFERENCES.--O. Bütschli, _Investigations on Microscopic Foams and

Protoplasm_ (Eng. trans. by E. A. Minchin, 1894), with a useful list

of references; H. von Helmholtz, _Vorträge und Reden_, ii. (1884); W.

Kochs, _Allgemeine Naturkunde_, x. 673 (1890); A. Leeuwenhoek,

_Epistolae ad Societatem regiam Anglicam_ (1719); E. Pflüger, "Über

einige Gesetze des Eiweissstoffwechsels," in _Archiv. Ges. Physiol._

liv. 333 (1893); W. Preyer, _Die Hypothesen über den Ursprung des

Lebens_ (1880); H. E. Richter, _Zur Darwinischen Lehre_ (1865);

Herbert Spencer, _Principles of Biology_; Max Verworm, _General

Physiology_ (English trans. by F. S. Lee, 1899), with a very full

literature. (P. C. M.)

LIFE-BOAT, and LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. The article on DROWNING AND

LIFE-SAVING (q.v.) deals generally with the means of saving life at sea,

but under this heading it is convenient to include the appliances

connected specially with the life-boat service. The ordinary open boat

is unsuited for life-saving in a stormy sea, and numerous contrivances,

in regard to which the lead came from England, have been made for

securing the best type of life-boat.

The first life-boat was conceived and designed by Lionel Lukin, a London

coach-builder, in 1785. Encouraged by the prince of Wales (George IV.),

Lukin fitted up a Norway yawl as a life-boat, took out a patent for it,

and wrote a pamphlet descriptive of his "Insubmergible Boat." Buoyancy

he obtained by means of a projecting gunwale of cork and air-chambers

inside--one of these being at the bow, another at the stern. Stability

he secured by a false iron keel. The self-righting and self-emptying

principles he seems not to have thought of; at all events he did not

compass them. Despite the patronage of the prince, Lukin went to his

grave a neglected and disappointed man. But he was not altogether

unsuccessful, for, at the request of the Rev Dr Shairp, Lukin fitted up

a coble as an "unimmergible" life-boat, which was launched at

Bamborough, saved several lives the first year and afterwards saved many

lives and much property.

Public apathy in regard to shipwreck was temporally swept away by the

wreck of the "Adventure" of Newcastle in 1789. This vessel was stranded

only 300 yds. from the shore, and her crew dropped, one by one, into the

raging breakers in presence of thousands of spectators, none of whom

dared to put off in an ordinary boat to the rescue. An excited meeting

among the people of South Shields followed; a committee was formed, and

premiums were offered for the best models of a life-boat. This called

forth many plans, of which those of William Wouldhave, a painter, and

Henry Greathead, a boatbuilder, of South Shields, were selected. The

committee awarded the prize to the latter, and, adopting the good points

of both models, gave the order for the construction of their boat to

Greathead. This boat was rendered buoyant by nearly 7 cwts. of cork, and

had very raking stem and stern-posts, with great curvature of keel. It

did good service, and Greathead was well rewarded; nevertheless no other

life-boat was launched till 1798, when the duke of Northumberland

ordered Greathead to build him a life-boat which he endowed. This boat

also did good service, and its owner ordered another in 1800 for Oporto.

In the same year Mr Cathcart Dempster ordered one for St Andrews, where,

two years later, it saved twelve lives. Thus the value of life-boats

began to be recognized, and before the end of 1803 Greathead had built

thirty-one boats--eighteen for England, five for Scotland and eight for

foreign lands. Nevertheless, public interest in life-boats was not

thoroughly aroused till 1823.

In that year Sir William Hillary, Bart., stood forth to champion the

life-boat cause. Sir William dwelt in the Isle of Man, and had assisted

with his own hand in the saving of three hundred and five lives. In

conjunction with two members of parliament--Mr Thomas Wilson and Mr

George Hibbert--Hillary founded the "Royal National Institution for the

Preservation of Life from Shipwreck." This, perhaps the grandest of

England's charitable societies, and now named the "Royal National

Life-boat Institution," was founded on the 4th of March 1824. The king

patronized it; the archbishop of Canterbury presided at its birth; the

most eloquent men in the land--among them Wilberforce--pleaded the

cause; nevertheless, the institution began its career with a sum of only

£9826. In the first year twelve new life-boats were built and placed at

different stations, besides which thirty-nine life-boats had been

stationed on the British shores by benevolent individuals and by

independent associations over which the institution exercised no control

though it often assisted them. In its early years the institution placed

the mortar apparatus of Captain Manby at many stations, and provided for

the wants of sailors and others saved from shipwreck,--a duty

subsequently discharged by the "Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners'

Royal Benevolent Society." At the date of the institution's second

report it had contributed to the saving of three hundred and forty-two

lives, either by its own life-saving apparatus or by other means for

which it had granted rewards. With fluctuating success, both as regards

means and results, the institution continued its good work--saving many

lives, and occasionally losing a few brave men in its tremendous battles

with the sea. Since the adoption of the self-righting boats, loss of

life in the service has been comparatively small and infrequent.

Towards the middle of the 19th century the life-boat cause appeared to

lose interest with the British public, though the life-saving work was

prosecuted with unremitting zeal, but the increasing loss of life by

shipwreck, and a few unusually severe disasters to life-boats, brought

about the reorganization of the society in 1850. The Prince Consort

became vice-patron of the institution in conjunction with the king of

the Belgians, and Queen Victoria, who had been its patron since her

accession, became an annual contributor to its funds. In 1851 the duke

of Northumberland became president, and from that time forward a tide of

prosperity set in, unprecedented in the history of benevolent

institutions, both in regard to the great work accomplished and the

pecuniary aid received. In 1850 its committee undertook the immediate

superintendence of all the life-boat work on the coasts, with the aid of

local committees. Periodical inspections, quarterly exercise of crews,

fixed rates of payments to coxswains and men, and quarterly reports,

were instituted, at the time when the self-righting self-emptying boat

came into being. This boat was the result of a hundred-guinea prize,

offered by the president, for the best model of a life-boat, with

another hundred to defray the cost of a boat built on the model chosen.

In reply to the offer no fewer than two hundred and eighty models were

sent in, not only from all parts of the United Kingdom, but from France,

Germany, Holland and the United States of America. The prize was gained

by Mr James Beeching of Great Yarmouth, whose model, slightly modified

by Mr James Peake, one of the committee of inspection, was still further

improved as time and experience suggested (see below).

The necessity of maintaining a thoroughly efficient life-boat service is

now generally recognized by the people not only of Great Britain, but

also of those other countries on the European Continent and America

which have a seaboard, and of the British colonies, and numerous

life-boat services have been founded more or less on the lines of the

Royal National Life-boat Institution. The British Institution was again

reorganized in 1883; it has since greatly developed both in its

life-saving efficiency and financially, and has been spoken of in the

highest terms as regards its management by successive governments--a

Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1897 reporting to the House

that the thanks of the whole community were due to the Institution for

its energy and good management. On the death of Queen Victoria in

January 1901 she was succeeded as patron of the Institution by Edward

VII., who as prince of Wales had been its president for several years.

At the close of 1908 the Institution's fleet consisted of 280

life-boats, and the total number of lives for the saving of which the

committee of management had granted rewards since the establishment of

the Institution in 1824 was 47,983. At this time there were only

seventeen life-boats on the coast of the United Kingdom which did not

belong to the Institution. In 1882 the total amount of money received by

the Institution from all sources was £57,797, whereas in 1901 the total

amount received had increased to £107,293. In 1908 the receipts were

£115,303, the expenditure £90,335.

In 1882 the Institution undertook, with the view of diminishing the

loss of life among the coast fishermen, to provide the masters and

owners of fishing-vessels with trustworthy aneroid barometers, at

about a third of the retail price, and in 1883 the privilege was

extended to the masters and owners of coasters under 100 tons burden.

At the end of 1901 as many as 4417 of these valuable instruments had

been supplied. In 1889 the committee of management secured the passing

of the Removal of Wrecks Act 1877 Amendment Act, which provides for

the removal of wrecks in non-navigable waters which might prove

dangerous to life-boat crews and others. Under its provisions

numerous highly dangerous wrecks have been removed.

In 1893 the chairman of the Institution moved a resolution in the

House of Commons that, in order to decrease the serious loss of life

from shipwreck on the coast, the British Government should provide

either telephonic or telegraphic communication between all the

coast-guard stations and signal stations on the coast of the United

Kingdom; and that where there are no coast-guard stations the post

offices nearest to the life-boat stations should be electrically

connected, the object being to give the earliest possible information

to the life-boat authorities at all times, by day and night, when the

life-boats are required for service; and further, that a Royal

Commission should be appointed to consider the desirability of

electrically connecting the rock lighthouses, light-ships, &c., with

the shore. The resolution was agreed to without a division, and its

intention has been practically carried out, the results obtained

having proved most valuable in the saving of life.

On the 1st of January 1898 a pension and gratuity scheme was

introduced by the committee of management, under which life-boat

coxswains, bowmen and signalmen of long and meritorious service,

retiring on account of old age, accident, ill-health or abolition of

office, receive special allowances as a reward for their good

services. While these payments act as an incentive to the men to

discharge their duties satisfactorily, they at the same time assist

the committee of management in their effort to obtain the best men for

the work. For many years the Institution has given compensation to any

who may have received injury while employed in the service, besides

granting liberal help to the widows and dependent relatives of any in

the service who lose their own lives when endeavouring to rescue

others.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--The 33-ft., Double-banked, Ten-oared,

Self-righting and Self-emptying Life-boat (1881) of the Institution on

its Transporting Carriage, ready for launching.]

A very marked advance in improvement in design and suitability for

service has been made in the life-boat since the reorganization of the

Institution in 1883, but principally since 1887, when, as the result of

an accident in December 1886 to two self-righting life-boats in

Lancashire, twenty-seven out of twenty-nine of the men who manned them

were drowned. At this time a permanent technical sub-committee was

appointed by the Institution, whose object was, with the assistance of

an eminent consulting naval architect--a new post created--and the

Institution's official experts, to give its careful attention to the

designing of improvements in the life-boat and its equipment, and to the

scientific consideration of any inventions or proposals submitted by the

public, with a view to adopting them if of practical utility. Whereas in

1881 the self-righting life-boat of that time was looked upon as the

Institution's special life-boat, and there were very few life-boats in

the Institution's fleet not of that type, at the close of 1901 the

life-boats of the Institution included 60 non-self-righting boats of

various types, known by the following designations: Steam life-boats 4,

Cromer 3, Lamb and White 1, Liverpool 14, Norfolk and Suffolk 19,

tubular 1, Watson 18. In 1901 a steam-tug was placed at Padstow for use

solely in conjunction with the life-boats on the north coast of

Cornwall. The self-righting life-boat of 1901 was a very different boat

from that of 1881. The Institution's present policy is to allow the men

who man the life-boats, after having seen and tried by deputation the

various types, to select that in which they have the most confidence.

The present life-boat of the self-righting type (fig. 2) differs

materially from its predecessor, the stability being increased and the

righting power greatly improved. The test of efficiency in this last

quality was formerly considered sufficient if the boat would quickly

right herself in smooth water without her crew and gear, but every

self-righting life-boat now built by the Institution will right with

her full crew and gear on board, with her sails set and the anchor down.

Most of the larger self-righting boats are furnished with

"centre-boards" or "drop-keels" of varying size and weight, which can be

used at pleasure, and materially add to their weather qualities. The

drop-keel was for the first time placed in a life-boat in 1885.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Plans, Profile and Section of Modern English

Self-righting Life-boat.

A, Deck.

B, Relieving valves for automatic discharge of water off deck.

C, Side air-cases above deck.

D, End air compartments, usually called "end-boxes," an important

factor in self-righting.

E, Wale, or fender.

F, Iron keel ballast, important in general stability and

self-righting.

G, Water-ballast tanks.

H, Drop-keel.]

[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Plans, Profile and Section of English Steam

Life-boat.

A, Cockpit.

a, Deck.

b, Propeller hatch.

c, Relief valves.

B, Engine-room.

C, Boiler-room.

D, Water-tight compartments.

E, Coal-bunkers.

F, Capstan.

G, Hatches to engine and boiler rooms.

H, Cable reel.

I, Anchor davit.]

Steam was first introduced into a life-boat in 1890, when the

Institution, after very full inquiry and consideration, stationed on the

coast a steel life-boat, 50 ft. long and 12 ft. beam, and a depth of 3

ft. 6 in., propelled by a turbine wheel driven by engines developing 170

horse-power. It had been previously held by all competent judges that a

mechanically-propelled life-boat, suitable for service in heavy weather,

was a problem surrounded by so many and great difficulties that even the

most sanguine experts dared not hope for an early solution of it. This

type of boat (fig. 3) has proved very useful. It is, however, fully

recognized that boats of this description can necessarily be used at

only a very limited number of stations, and where there is a harbour

which never dries out. The highest speed attained by the first hydraulic

steam life-boat was rather more than 9 knots, and that secured in the

latest 9½ knots. In 1909 the fleet of the Institution included 4 steam

life-boats and 8 motor life-boats. The experiments with motor life-boats

in previous years had proved successful.

The other types of pulling and sailing life-boats are all

non-self-righting, and are specially suitable for the requirements of

the different parts of the coast on which they are placed. Their various

qualities will be understood by a glance at the illustrations (figs. 4,

5, 6, 7 and 8).

[Illustration: FIG. 4.--Plans, Profile and Section of Cromer Type of

Life-boat.

A, Deck.

B, Relieving valves for automatic discharge of water off deck.

C, Side air-cases above deck.

E, Wale, or fender.

G, Water-ballast tanks.]

The Institution continues to build life-boats of different sizes

according to the requirements of the various points of the coast at

which they are placed, but of late years the tendency has been generally

to increase the dimensions of the boats. This change of policy is mainly

due to the fact that the small coasters and fishing-boats have in great

measure disappeared, their places being taken by steamers and steam

trawlers. The cost of the building and equipping of pulling and sailing

life-boats has materially increased, more especially since 1898, the

increase being mainly due to improvements and the seriously augmented

charges for materials and labour. In 1881 the average cost of a

fully-equipped life-boat and carriage was £650, whereas at the end of

1901 it amounted to £1000, the average annual cost of maintaining a

station having risen to about £125.

The _transporting-carriage_ continues to be a most important part of the

equipment of life-boats, generally of the self-righting type, and is

indispensable where it is necessary to launch the boats at any point not

in the immediate vicinity of the boat-house. It is not, however, usual

to supply carriages to boats of larger dimensions than 37 ft. in length

by 9 ft. beam, those in excess as regards length and beam being either

launched by means of special slipways or kept afloat. The

transporting-carriage of to-day has been rendered particularly useful at

places where the beach is soft, sandy or shingly, by the introduction in

1888 of Tipping's sand-plates. They are composed of an endless plateway

or jointed wheel tyre fitted to the main wheels of the carriage, thereby

enabling the boat to be transferred with rapidity and with greatly

decreased labour over beach and soft sand. Further efficiency in

launching has also been attained at many stations by the introduction in

1890 of pushing-poles, attached to the transporting-carriages, and of

horse launching-poles, first used in 1892. Fig. 9 gives a view of the

modern transporting-carriage fitted with Tipping's sand- or

wheel-plates.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.--Plans, Profile and Section of Liverpool Type of

Life-boat. A, B, C, E, G, as in fig. 3; D, end air-compartments; F, iron

keel; H, drop-keels.]

The _life-belt_ has since 1898 been considerably improved, being now

less cumbersome than formerly, and more comfortable. The feature of the

principal improvement is the reduction in length of the corks under the

arms of the wearer and the rounding-off of the upper portions, the

result being that considerably more freedom is provided for the arms.

The maximum extra buoyancy has thereby been reduced from 25 lb. to 22

lb., which is more than sufficient to support a man heavily clothed with

his head and shoulders above the water, or to enable him to support

another person besides himself. Numerous life-belts of very varied

descriptions, and made of all sorts of materials, have been patented,

but it is generally agreed that for life-boat work the cork life-belt of

the Institution has not yet been equalled.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Plans, Profile and Section of Norfolk and

Suffolk Type of Life-boat. A, B, E, F, G, H, as in fig. 4; A, side deck;

I, cable-well.]

_Life-saving rafts, seats for ships' decks, dresses, buoys, belts, &c.,_

have been produced in all shapes and sizes, but apparently nothing

indispensable has as yet been brought out. Those interested in

life-saving appliances were hopeful that the Paris Exhibition of 1900

would have produced some life-saving invention which might prove a

benefit to the civilized world, but so lacking in real merit were the

life-saving exhibits that the jury of experts were unable to award to

any of the 435 competitors the Andrew Pollok prize of £4000 for the best

method or device for saving life from shipwreck.

[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Plan, Profile and Section of Tubular Type of

Life-boat. A, deck; E, wale, or fender; H, drop-keel.]

The _rocket apparatus_, which in the United Kingdom is under the

management of the coast-guard, renders excellent service in life-saving.

This, next to the life-boat, is the most important and successful means

by which shipwrecked persons are rescued on the British shores. Many

vessels are cast every year on the rocky parts of the coasts, under

cliffs, where no life-boat could be of service. In such places the

rocket alone is available.

[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Plans, Profile and Section of Watson Type of

Life-boat. Lettering as in fig. 5, but C, side air-cases above deck and

thwarts.]

The rocket apparatus consists of five principal parts, viz. the

rocket, the rocket-line, the whip, the hawser and the sling life-buoy.

The mode of working it is as follows. A rocket, having a light line

attached to it, is fired over the wreck. By means of this line the

wrecked crew haul out the whip, which is a double or endless line,

rove through a block with a tail attached to it. The tail-block,

having been detached from the rocket-line, is fastened to a mast, or

other portion of the wreck, high above the water. By means of the whip

the rescuers haul off the hawser, to which is hung the travelling or

sling life-buoy. When one end of the hawser has been made fast to the

mast, about 18 in. _above_ the whip, and its other end to tackle

fixed to an anchor on shore, the life-buoy is run out by the rescuers,

and the shipwrecked persons, getting into it one at a time, are hauled

ashore. Sometimes, in cases of urgency, the life-buoy is worked by

means of the whip alone, without the hawser. Captain G. W. Manby,

F.R.S., in 1807 invented, or at least introduced, the mortar

apparatus, on which the system of the rocket apparatus, which

superseded it in England, is founded. Previously, however, in 1791,

the idea of throwing a rope from a wreck to the shore by means of a

shell from a mortar had occurred to Serjeant Bell of the Royal

Artillery, and about the same time, to a Frenchman named La Fère, both

of whom made successful experiments with their apparatus. In the same

year (1807) a rocket was proposed by Mr Trengrouse of Helston in

Cornwall, also a hand and lead line as means of communicating with

vessels in distress. The _heaving-cane_ was a fruit of the latter

suggestion. In 1814 forty-five mortar stations were established, and

Manby received £2000, in addition to previous grants, in

acknowledgment of the good service rendered by his invention. Mr John

Dennett of Newport, Isle of Wight, introduced the rocket, which was

afterwards extensively used. In 1826 four places in the Isle of Wight

were supplied with Dennett's rockets, but it was not till after

government had taken the apparatus under its own control, in 1855,

that the rocket invented by Colonel Boxer was adopted. Its peculiar

characteristic lies in the combination of two rockets in one case, one

being a continuation of the other, so that, after the first

compartment has carried the machine to its full elevation, the second

gives it an additional impetus whereby a great increase of range is

obtained. (R. M. B.; C. Di.)

[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Life-boat Transporting-Carriage with Tipping's

Wheel-Plates.]

UNITED STATES.--In the extent of coast line covered, magnitude of

operations and the extraordinary success which has crowned its efforts,

the life-saving service of the United States is not surpassed by any

other institution of its kind in the world. Notwithstanding the exposed

and dangerous nature of the coasts flanking and stretching between the

approaches to the principal seaports, and the immense amount of shipping

concentrating upon them, the loss of life among a total of 121,459

persons imperilled by marine casualty within the scope of the operations

of the service from its organization in 1871 to the 30th of June 1907,

was less than 1%, and even this small proportion is made up largely of

persons washed overboard immediately upon the striking of vessels and

before any assistance could reach them, or lost in attempts to land in

their own boats, and people thrown into the sea by the capsizing of

small craft. In the scheme of the service, next in importance to the

saving of life is the saving of property from marine disaster, for which

no salvage or reward is allowed. During the period named vessels and

cargoes to the value of nearly two hundred million dollars were saved,

while only about a quarter as much was lost.

The first government life-saving stations were plain boat-houses erected

on the coast of New Jersey in 1848, each equipped with a fisherman's

surf-boat and a mortar and life-car with accessories. Prior to this

time, as early as 1789, a benevolent organization known as the

Massachusetts Humane Society had erected rude huts along the coast of

that state, followed by a station at Cohasset in 1807 equipped with a

boat for use by volunteer crews. Others were subsequently added. Between

1849 and 1870 this society secured appropriations from Congress

aggregating $40,000. It still maintains sixty-nine stations on the

Massachusetts coast. The government service was extended in 1849 to the

coast of Long Island, and in 1850 one station was placed on the Rhode

Island coast. In 1854 the appointment of keepers for the New Jersey and

Long Island stations, and a superintendent for each of these coasts, was

authorized by law. Volunteer crews were depended upon until 1870, when

Congress authorized crews at each alternate station for the three winter

months.

The present system was inaugurated in 1871 by Sumner I. Kimball, who in

that year was appointed chief of the Revenue Cutter Service, which had

charge of the few existing stations. He recommended an appropriation of

$200,000 and authority for the employment of crews for all stations for

such periods as were deemed necessary, which were granted. The existing

stations were thoroughly overhauled and put in condition for the housing

of crews; necessary boats and equipment were furnished; incapable

keepers, who had been appointed largely for political reasons, were

supplanted by experienced men; additional stations were established; all

were manned by capable surfmen; the merit system for appointments and

promotions was inaugurated; a beach patrol system was introduced,

together with a system of signals; and regulations for the government of

the service were promulgated. The result of the transformation was

immediate and striking. At the end of the year it was found that not a

life had been lost within the domain of the service; and at the end of

the second year the record was almost identical, but one life having

been lost, although the service had been extended to embrace the

dangerous coast of Cape Cod. Legislation was subsequently secured,

totally eliminating politics in the choice of officers and men, and

making other provisions necessary for the completion of the system. The

service continued to grow in extent and importance until, in 1878, it

was separated from the Revenue Cutter Service and organized into a

separate bureau of the Treasury, its administration being placed in the

hands of a general superintendent appointed by the president and

confirmed by the senate, his term of office being limited only by the

will of the president. Mr Kimball was appointed to the position, which

he still held in 1909.

The service embraces thirteen districts, with 280 stations located at

selected points upon the sea and lake coasts. Nine districts on the

Atlantic and Gulf coasts contain 201 stations, including nine houses

of refuge on the Florida coast, each in charge of a keeper only,

without crews; three districts on the Great Lakes contain 61 stations,

including one at the falls of the Ohio river, Louisville, Kentucky;

and one district on the Pacific coast contains 18 stations, including

one at Nome, Alaska.

The general administration of the service is conducted by a general

superintendent; an inspector of life-saving stations and two

superintendents of construction of life-saving stations detailed from

the Revenue Cutter Service; a district superintendent for each

district; and assistant inspectors of stations, also detailed from the

Revenue Cutter Service "to perform such duties in connexion with the

conduct of the service as the general superintendent may require."

There is also an advisory board on life-saving appliances consisting

of experts, to consider devices and inventions submitted by the

general superintendent.

Station crews are composed of a keeper and from six to eight surfmen,

with an additional man during the winter months at most of the

stations on the Atlantic coast. The surfmen are reenlisted from year

to year during good behaviour, subject to a thorough physical

examination. The keepers are also subject to annual physical

examinations after attaining the age of fifty-five. Stations on the

Atlantic and Gulf coasts are manned from August 1st to May 31st. On

the lakes the active season covers the period of navigation, from

about April 1st to early in December. The falls station at Louisville,

and all stations on the Pacific coast, are in commission continuously.

One station, located in Dorchester Bay, an expanse of water within

Boston harbour, where numerous yachts rendezvous and many accidents

occur, which, with the one at Louisville are, believed to be the only

floating life-saving stations in the world, is manned from May 1st to

November 15th. Its equipment includes a steam tug and two gasoline

launches, the latter being harboured in a slip cut into the after-part

of the station and extending from the stern to nearly amidships. The

Louisville stations guard the falls of the Ohio river, where life is

much endangered from accidents to vessels passing over the falls and

small craft which are liable to be drawn into the chutes while

attempting to cross the river. Its equipment includes two river skiffs

which can be instantly launched directly from the ways at one end of

the station. These skiffs are small boats modelled much like

surf-boats, designed to be rowed by one or two men. Other equipments

are provided for the salvage of property. The stations, located as

near as practicable to a launching place, contain as a rule convenient

quarters for the residence of the keeper and crew and a boat and

apparatus room. In some instances the dwelling- and boat-house are

built separately. Each station has a look-out tower for the day watch.

The principal apparatus consists of surf- and life-boats, Lyle gun and

breeches-buoy apparatus and life-car. The Hunt gun and Cunningham

line-carrying rocket are available at selected stations on account of

their greater range, but their use is rarely necessary. The crews are

drilled daily in some portion of rescue work, as practice in

manoeuvring, upsetting and righting boats, with the breeches-buoy, in

the resuscitation of the apparently drowned and in signalling. The

district officers upon their quarterly visits examine the crews orally

and by drill, recording the proficiency of each member, including the

keeper, which record accompanies their report to the general

superintendent. For watch and patrol the day of twenty-four hours is

divided into periods of four or five hours each. Day watches are stood

by one man in the look-out tower or at some other point of vantage,

while two men are assigned to each night watch between sunset and

sunrise. One of the men remains on watch at the station, dividing his

time between the beach look-out and visits to the telephone at

specified intervals to receive messages, the service telephone system

being extended from station to station nearly throughout the service,

with watch telephones at half-way points. The other man patrols the

beach to the end of his beat and returns, when he takes the look-out

and his watchmate patrols in the opposite direction. A like patrol and

watch is maintained in thick or stormy weather in the daytime. Between

adjacent stations a record of the patrol is made by the exchange of

brass checks; elsewhere the patrolman carries a watchman's clock, on

the dial of which he records the time of his arrival at the keypost

which marks the end of his beat. On discovering a vessel standing into

danger the patrolman burns a Coston signal, which emits a brilliant

red flare, to warn the vessel of her danger. The number of vessels

thus warned averages about two hundred in each year, whereby great

losses are averted, the extent of which can never be known. When a

stranded vessel is discovered, the patrolman's Coston signal apprises

the crew that they are seen and assistance is at hand. He then

notifies his station, by telephone if possible. When such notice is

received at the station, the keeper determines the means with which to

attempt a rescue, whether by boat or beach-apparatus. If the

beach-apparatus is chosen, the apparatus cart is hauled to a point

directly opposite the wreck by horses, kept at most of the stations

during the inclement months, or by the members of the crew. The gear

is unloaded, and while being set up--the members of the crew

performing their several allotted parts simultaneously--the keeper

fires a line over the wreck with the Lyle gun, a small bronze cannon

weighing, with its 18 lb. elongated iron projectile to which the line

is attached, slightly more than 200 lb., and having an extreme range

of about 700 yds., though seldom available at wrecks for more than 400

yds. This gun was the invention of Lieutenant (afterwards Colonel)

David A. Lyle, U.S. Army. Shot lines are of three sizes, {4/32},

{7/32} and {9/32} of an inch diameter, designated respectively Nos. 4,

7 and 9. The two larger are ordinarily used, the No. 4 for extreme

range. A line having been fired within reach of the persons on the

wreck, an endless rope rove through a tail-block is sent out by it

with instructions, printed in English and French on a tally-board, to

make the tail fast to a mast or other elevated portion of the wreck.

This done, a 3-in. hawser is bent on to the whip and hauled off to the

wreck, to be made fast a little above the tail-block, after which the

shore end is hauled taut over a crotch by means of tackle attached to

a sand anchor. From this hawser the breeches-buoy or life-car is

suspended and drawn between the ship and shore of the endless

whip-line. The life-car can also be drawn like a boat between ship and

shore without the use of a hawser. The breeches-buoy is a cork

life-buoy to which is attached a pair of short canvas breeches, the

whole suspended from a traveller block by suitable lanyards. It

usually carries one person at a time, although two have frequently

been brought ashore together. The life-car, first introduced in 1848,

is a boat of corrugated iron with a convex iron cover, having a hatch

in the top for the admission of passengers, which can be fastened

either from within or without, and a few perforations to admit air,

with raised edges to exclude water. At wreck operations during the

night the shore is illuminated by powerful acetylene (calcium carbide)

lights. If any of the rescued persons are frozen, as often happens,

or are injured or sick, first aid and simple remedies are furnished

them. Dry clothing, supplied by the Women's National Relief

Association, is also furnished to survivors, which the destitute are

allowed to keep.

[Illustration: FIG. 10.--American Power Life-boat.]

Several types of light open surf-boats are used, adapted to the

special requirements of the different localities and occasions. They

are built of cedar, from 23 to 27 ft. long, and are provided with end

air chambers and longitudinal air cases on each side under the

thwarts.

[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Beebe-McLellan Self-bailing Boat.]

Self-righting and self-bailing life-boats, patterned after those used

in England and other countries, have heretofore been used at most of

the Lake stations and at points on the ocean coast where they can be

readily launched from ways. Most of these boats, however, have now

been transformed into power boats without the sacrifice of any of

their essential qualities. The installation of power is effected by

introducing a 25 H.P. four-cycle gasoline motor, weighing with its

fittings, tanks, &c., about 800 lb. The engine is installed in the

after air chamber, with the starting crank, reversing clutches, &c.,

recessed into the bulkhead to protect them from accidents. These boats

attain a speed of from 7 to 9 m. an hour, and have proved extremely

efficient. A new power life-boat (fig. 10) on somewhat improved lines,

36 ft. in length, and equipped with a 35-40 H.P. gasoline engine,

promises to prove still more efficient. A number of surf-boats have

also been equipped with gasoline engines of from 5 to 7 H.P., for

light and quick work, with very satisfactory results.

[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Details of boat shown in Fig. 10.]

A distinctively American life-boat extensively used is the

Beebe-McLellan self-bailing boat (fig. 11), which for all round

life-saving work is held in the highest esteem. It possesses all the

qualities of the self-righting and self-bailing life-boats in use in

all life-saving institutions, except that of self-righting; and the

sacrifice of this quality is largely counteracted by the ease with

which it can be righted by its crew when capsized. For accomplishing

this the crews are thoroughly drilled. In drill a trained crew can

upset and right the boat and resume their places at the oars in twenty

seconds. The boat is built of cedar, weighs about 1200 lb., and can be

used at all stations and launched by the crew directly off the beach

from the boat-wagon especially made for it. The self-bailing quality

is secured by a water-tight deck at a level a little above the load

water line with relieving tubes fitted with valves through which any

water shipped runs back into the sea by gravity. Air cases along the

sides under the thwarts, inclining towards the middle of the boat,

minimize the quantity of water taken in, and the water-ballast tank in

the bottom increases the stability by the weight of the water which

can be admitted by opening the valve. When transported along the land

it is empty. The Beebe-McLellan boat is 25 ft. long, 7 ft. beam, and

will carry 12 to 15 persons in addition to its crew. Some of these

boats, intended for use in localities where the temperature of the

water will not permit of frequent upsetting and righting drills, are

built with end air cases which render them self-righting.

In addition to the principal appliances described, a number of minor

importance are included in the equipment of every life-saving station,

such as launching carriages for life-boats, roller boat-skids, heaving

sticks and all necessary tools. Members of all life-saving crews are

required on all occasions of boat practice or duty at wrecks to wear

life-belts of the prescribed pattern. (A. T. T.)

_Life-boat Service in other Countries._--Good work is done by the

life-boat service in other countries, most of these institutions having

been formed on the lines of the Royal National Life-boat Institution of

Great Britain. The services are operating in the following countries:--

_Belgium._--Established in 1838. Supported entirely by government.

_Denmark._--Established in 1848. Government service.

_Sweden._--Established in 1856. Government service.

_France._--Established in 1865. Voluntary association, but assisted by

the government.

_Germany._--Established in 1885. Supported entirely by voluntary

contributions.

_Turkey_ (Black Sea).--Established in 1868. Supported by dues.

_Russia._--Established in 1872. Voluntary association, but receiving

an annual grant from the government.

_Italy._--Established in 1879. Voluntary association.

_Spain._--Established in 1880. Voluntary association, but receiving

annually a grant of £1440 from government.

_Canada._--Established in 1880. Government service.

_Holland._--Established in 1884. Voluntary association, but assisted

by a government subsidy.

_Norway._--Established in 1891. Voluntary association, but receiving a

small annual grant from government.

_Portugal._--Established in 1898. Voluntary society.

_India (East Coast)._--Voluntary association.

_Australia (South)._--Voluntary association.

_New Zealand._--Voluntary association.

_Japan._--The National Life-boat Institution of Japan was founded in

1889. It is a voluntary society, assisted by government. Its affairs

are managed by a president and a vice-president, supported by a very

influential council. The head office is at Tôkyô; there are numerous

branches with local committees. The Imperial government contributes an

annual subsidy of 20,000 _yen_ (£2000). The members of the Institution

consist of three classes--honorary, ordinary and sub-ordinary, the

amount contributed by the member determining the class in which he is

placed. The chairman and council are not, as in Great Britain,

appointed by the subscribers, but by the president, who must always be

a member of the imperial family. The Institution bestows three medals:

(a) the medal of merit, to be awarded to persons rendering

distinguished service to the Institution; (b) the medal of membership,

to be held by honorary and ordinary members or subscribers; and (c)

the medal of praise, which is bestowed on those distinguishing

themselves by special service in the work of rescue.

LIFFORD, the county town of Co. Donegal, Ireland, on the left bank of

the Foyle. Pop. (1901) 446. The county gaol, court house and infirmary

are here, but the town is practically a suburb of Strabane, across the

river, in Co. Londonderry. Lifford, formerly called Ballyduff, was a

chief stronghold of the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell. It was incorporated as

a borough (under the name of Liffer) in the reign of James I. It

returned two members to the Irish parliament until the union in 1800.

LIGAMENT (Lat. _ligamentum_, from _ligare_, to bind), anything which

binds or connects two or more parts; in anatomy a piece of tissue

connecting different parts of an organism (see CONNECTIVE TISSUES and

JOINTS).

LIGAO, a town near the centre of the province of Albay, Luzon,

Philippine Islands, close to the left bank of a tributary of the Bicol

river, and on the main road through the valley. Pop. (1903) 17,687. East

of the town rises Mayón, an active volcano, and the rich volcanic soil

in this region produces hemp, rice and coco-nuts. Agriculture is the

sole occupation of the inhabitants. Their language is Bicol.

LIGHT. _Introduction._--§ 1. "Light" may be defined subjectively as the

sense-impression formed by the eye. This is the most familiar

connotation of the term, and suffices for the discussion of optical

subjects which do not require an objective definition, and, in

particular, for the treatment of physiological optics and vision. The

objective definition, or the "nature of light," is the _ultima Thule_ of

optical research. "Emission theories," based on the supposition that

light was a stream of corpuscles, were at first accepted. These gave

place during the opening decades of the 19th century to the "undulatory

or wave theory," which may be regarded as culminating in the "elastic

solid theory"--so named from the lines along which the mathematical

investigation proceeded--and according to which light is a transverse

vibratory motion propagated longitudinally though the aether. The

mathematical researches of James Clerk Maxwell have led to the rejection

of this theory, and it is now held that light is identical with

electromagnetic disturbances, such as are generated by oscillating

electric currents or moving magnets. Beyond this point we cannot go at

present. To quote Arthur Schuster (_Theory of Optics_, 1904), "So long

as the character of the displacements which constitute the waves remains

undefined we cannot pretend to have established a theory of light." It

will thus be seen that optical and electrical phenomena are co-ordinated

as a phase of the physics of the "aether," and that the investigation of

these sciences culminates in the derivation of the properties of this

conceptual medium, the existence of which was called into being as an

instrument of research.[1] The methods of the elastic-solid theory can

still be used with advantage in treating many optical phenomena, more

especially so long as we remain ignorant of fundamental matters

concerning the origin of electric and magnetic strains and stresses; in

addition, the treatment is more intelligible, the researches on the

electromagnetic theory leading in many cases to the derivation of

differential equations which express quantitative relations between

diverse phenomena, although no precise meaning can be attached to the

symbols employed. The school following Clerk Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz

has certainly laid the foundations of a complete theory of light and

electricity, but the methods must be adopted with caution, lest one be

constrained to say with Ludwig Boltzmann as in the introduction to his

_Vorlesungen über Maxwell's Theorie der Elektricität und des Lichtes_:--

"So soll ich denn mit saurem Schweiss

Euch lehren, was ich selbst nicht weiss."

GOETHE, _Faust_.

The essential distinctions between optical and electromagnetic phenomena

may be traced to differences in the lengths of light-waves and of

electromagnetic waves. The aether can probably transmit waves of any

wave-length, the velocity of longitudinal propagation being about 3.10^10

cms. per second. The shortest waves, discovered by Schumann and

accurately measured by Lyman, have a wave-length of 0.0001 mm.; the

ultra-violet, recognized by their action on the photographic plate or by

their promoting fluorescence, have a wave-length of 0.0002 mm.; the eye

recognizes vibrations of a wave-length ranging from about 0.0004 mm.

(violet) to about 0.0007 (red); the infra-red rays, recognized by their

heating power or by their action on phosphorescent bodies, have a

wave-length of 0.001 mm.; and the longest waves present in the radiations

of a luminous source are the residual rays ("_Rest-strahlen_") obtained

by repeated reflections from quartz (.0085 mm.), from fluorite (0.056

mm.), and from sylvite (0.06 mm.). The research-field of optics includes

the investigation of the rays which we have just enumerated. A

delimitation may then be made, inasmuch as luminous sources yield no

other radiations, and also since the next series of waves, the

electromagnetic waves, have a minimum wave-length of 6 mm.

§ 2. The commonest subjective phenomena of light are colour and

visibility, i.e. why are some bodies visible and others not, or, in

other words, what is the physical significance of the words

"transparency," "colour" and "visibility." What is ordinarily understood

by a _transparent_ substance is one which transmits all the rays of

white light without appreciable absorption--that some absorption does

occur is perceived when the substance is viewed through a sufficient

thickness. _Colour_ is due to the absorption of certain rays of the

spectrum, the unabsorbed rays being transmitted to the eye, where they

occasion the sensation of colour (see COLOUR; ABSORPTION OF LIGHT).

Transparent bodies are seen partly by reflected and partly by

transmitted light, and opaque bodies by absorption. Refraction also

influences visibility. Objects immersed in a liquid of the same

refractive index and dispersion would be invisible; for example, a glass

rod can hardly be seen when immersed in Canada balsam; other instances

occur in the petrological examination of rock-sections under the

microscope. In a complex rock-section the boldness with which the

constituents stand out are measures of the difference between their

refractive indices and the refractive index of the mounting medium, and

the more nearly the indices coincide the less defined become the

boundaries, while the interior of the mineral may be most advantageously

explored. Lord Rayleigh has shown that transparent objects can only be

seen when non-uniformly illuminated, the differences in the refractive

indices of the substance and the surrounding medium becoming inoperative

when the illumination is uniform on all sides. R. W. Wood has performed

experiments which confirm this view.

The analysis of white light into the spectrum colours, and the

reformation of the original light by transmitting the spectrum through a

reversed prism, proved, to the satisfaction of Newton and subsequent

physicists until late in the 19th century, that the various coloured

rays were present in white light, and that the action of the prism was

merely to sort out the rays. This view, which suffices for the

explanation of most phenomena, has now been given up, and the modern

view is that the prism or grating really does _manufacture_ the colours,

as was held previously to Newton. It appears that white light is a

sequence of irregular wave trains which are analysed into series of more

regular trains by the prism or grating in a manner comparable with the

analytical resolution presented by Fourier's theorem. The modern view

points to the _mathematical_ existence of waves of all wave-lengths in

white light, the Newtonian view to the _physical_ existence. Strictly,

the term "monochromatic" light is only applicable to light of a single

wave-length (which can have no actual existence), but it is commonly

used to denote light which cannot be analysed by the instruments at our

disposal; for example, with low-power instruments the light emitted by

sodium vapour would be regarded as homogeneous or monochromatic, but

higher power instruments resolve this light into two components of

different wave-lengths, each of which is of a higher degree of

homogeneity, and it is not impossible that these rays may be capable of

further analysis.

§ 3. _Divisions of the Subject._--In the early history of the science of

light or optics a twofold division was adopted: _Catoptrics_ (from Gr.

[Greek: katoptron], a mirror), embracing the phenomena of reflection,

i.e. the formation of images by mirrors; and _Dioptrics_ (Gr. [Greek:

dia], through), embracing the phenomena of refraction, i.e. the bending

of a ray of light when passing obliquely through the surface dividing

two media.[2] A third element, _Chromatics_ (Gr. [Greek: chrôma],

colour), was subsequently introduced to include phenomena involving

colour transformations, such as the iridescence of mother-of-pearl,

feathers, soap-bubbles, oil floating on water, &c. This classification

has been discarded (although the terms, particularly "dioptric" and

"chromatic," have survived as adjectives) in favour of a twofold

division: geometrical optics and physical optics. _Geometrical optics_

is a mathematical development (mainly effected by geometrical methods)

of three laws assumed to be rigorously true: (1) the law of rectilinear

propagation, viz. that light travels in straight lines or _rays_ in any

homogeneous medium; (2) the law of reflection, viz. that the incident

and reflected rays at any point of a surface are equally inclined to,

and coplanar with, the normal to the surface at the point of incidence;

and (3) the law of refraction, viz. that the incident and refracted rays

at a surface dividing two media make angles with the normal to the

surface at the point of incidence whose sines are in a ratio (termed the

"refractive index") which is constant for every particular pair of

media, and that the incident and refracted rays are coplanar with the

normal. _Physical optics_, on the other hand, has for its ultimate

object the elucidation of the question: what is light? It investigates

the nature of the rays themselves, and, in addition to determining the

validity of the axioms of geometrical optics, embraces phenomena for the

explanation of which an expansion of these assumptions is necessary.

Of the subordinate phases of the science, "physiological optics" is

concerned with the phenomena of vision, with the eye as an optical

instrument, with colour-perception, and with such allied subjects as

the appearance of the eyes of a cat and the luminosity of the glow-worm

and firefly; "meteorological optics" includes phenomena occasioned by

the atmosphere, such as the rainbow, halo, corona, mirage, twinkling of

stars and colour of the sky, and also the effects of atmospheric dust in

promoting such brilliant sunsets as were seen after the eruption of

Krakatoa; "magneto-optics" investigates the effects of electricity and

magnetism on optical properties; "photo-chemistry," with its more

practical development photography, is concerned with the influence of

light in effecting chemical action; and the term "applied optics" may be

used to denote, on the one hand, the experimental investigation of

material for forming optical systems, e.g. the study of glasses with a

view to the formation of a glass of specified optical properties (with

which may be included such matters as the transparency of rock-salt for

the infra-red and of quartz for the ultra-violet rays), and, on the

other hand, the application of geometrical and physical investigations

to the construction of optical instruments.

§ 4. _Arrangement of the Subject._--The following three divisions of

this article deal with: (I.) the history of the science of light; (II.)

the nature of light; (III.) the velocity of light; but a summary (which

does not aim at scientific precision) may here be given to indicate to

the reader the inter-relation of the various optical phenomena, those

phenomena which are treated in separate articles being shown in larger

type.

The simplest subjective phenomena of light are COLOUR and intensity, the

measurement of the latter being named PHOTOMETRY. When light falls on a

medium, it may be returned by REFLECTION or it may suffer ABSORPTION; or

it may be transmitted and undergo REFRACTION, and, if the light be

composite, DISPERSION; or, as in the case of oil films on water,

brilliant colours are seen, an effect which is due to INTERFERENCE.

Again, if the rays be transmitted in two directions, as with certain

crystals, "double refraction" (see REFRACTION, DOUBLE) takes place, and

the emergent rays have undergone POLARIZATION. A SHADOW is cast by light

falling on an opaque object, the complete theory of which involves the

phenomenon of DIFFRACTION. Some substances have the property of

transforming luminous radiations, presenting the phenomena of

CALORESCENCE, FLUORESCENCE and PHOSPHORESCENCE. An optical system is

composed of any number of MIRRORS or LENSES, or of both. If light

falling on a system be not brought to a focus, i.e. if all the emergent

rays be not concurrent, we are presented with a CAUSTIC and an

ABERRATION. An optical instrument is simply the setting up of an optical

system, the TELESCOPE, MICROSCOPE, OBJECTIVE, optical LANTERN, CAMERA

LUCIDA, CAMERA OBSCURA and the KALEIDOSCOPE are examples; instruments

serviceable for simultaneous vision with both eyes are termed BINOCULAR

INSTRUMENTS; the STEREOSCOPE may be placed in this category; the optical

action of the Zoétrope, with its modern development the CINEMATOGRAPH,

depends upon the physiological persistence of VISION. Meteorological

optical phenomena comprise the CORONA, HALO, MIRAGE, RAINBOW, colour of

SKY and TWILIGHT, and also astronomical refraction (see REFRACTION,

ASTRONOMICAL); the complete theory of the corona involves DIFFRACTION,

and atmospheric DUST also plays a part in this group of phenomena.