Martyria Part 6

XVI.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

On the pathway to the graveyard, not far from the prison, and in open sight, was built the hut where the bloodhounds were kept, always ready to track and pursue the fugitives, who were so fortunate as to escape by evading the vigilance of the guards, or by the slow and dangerous process of tunnelling beneath the palisades. The system of pursuit was so perfect, the dogs so numerous and well trained, that it was very rarely that any one escaped, and then it was only by the kind intervention of the black man.

There were but nine bloodhounds kept here, but there were more than fifty dogs, kept in relays, along the route of escape, extending from the town to the city of Macon, fifty miles distant. The names of these inhuman wretches, who kept and hunted with these hounds, are known to the writer, the places of their residence, the number of their animals, and the price they received for each hapless victim overpowered by their dogs. These packs of hounds were generally accompanied by dogs of fierce and determined courage, to seize and hold the object pursued until the hunters arrived. The ordinary bloodhound of these regions is cowardly from degeneration, and dare not face the look, nor disregard the voice of man, and until the catch-dogs arrive and dash in, and lead the way, they bay and show their teeth from safe distances; but the victim once disabled, they tear and rend the living limbs without reluctance. The bloodhound is said, when in a state of tranquillity, to be the most affectionate of all the canine race, but when once excited, he no longer recognizes the blood of his master from that of the stranger. That many men were pursued, and caught, and paid for by the rebel authorities, at the price of thirty dollars a head, there is abundant proof; that men were disabled, and torn wantonly by the hounds, and afterwards died of their wounds, the writer has positive proof. That Federal soldiers were overpowered and destroyed in the forests by the dogs, and their brutal owners, there is evidence.

It did not shock the civil communities of the South to hear of the use of the bloodhounds to pursue and maim men of their own race and nation, for in every locality, for a long period past, it had been the custom to rear and train dogs to catch the hapless slave who had incurred the rage of his master, and vainly sought to escape from his fury in the obscure recesses of the tangled forests.

Usage, by long repet.i.tion, had blunted the natural sympathies, so that hate readily excused the difference in cla.s.s and color.

XVII.

The bloodhounds here used appear to have been of a degenerate breed, and to have lacked the great strength, the invincible determination, which the true race possesses. The bloodhounds introduced into Cuba, to exterminate the Indians, were ferocious and powerful animals. From these the present stock in Southern Georgia were probably descended, and during three centuries of change, have gradually lost their n.o.bler qualities, but have preserved the form. The true bloodhound is taller than the fox-hound, and stronger in his make. His color is of a reddish brown, shaded here and there with darker tints. His muzzle and jaws wide and strong, and the frame firmly knit. His scenting power is extraordinary, and from time immemorial his services have been made use of in tracking wounded animals or fugitives from justice.

"Soon the sagacious brute, his curling tail Flourished in air, low bending, plies around His busy nose, the steaming vapor snuffs Inquisitive, nor leaves one turf untried, Till, conscious of the recent stains, his heart Beats quick; his snuffing nose, his active tail Attest his joy: then with deep, opening mouth, That makes the welkin tremble, he proclaims Th' audacious felon: foot by foot he marks His winding way, while all the listening crowd Applaud his reasonings, o'er the watery ford, Dry sandy heaths, and stony, barren hills; O'er beaten paths, with men and beasts disdained, Unerring he pursues, till at the cot Arrived, and seizing by his guilty throat The caitiff vile, redeems the captive prey."

BOOK FOURTH.

I.

Animals eat that they may live. Man eats, not only that he may live, but that he may gather strength, and fulfil his high destiny on earth.

When G.o.d gave form and animation to the dust of the earth, and man appeared, he did not intend that the sustenance of life should be left to chance or to careless selection. This intent of the Creator is revealed in the study of the organic world, where wonderful varieties and productions are offered to the appet.i.te of man, in order that the "force of the universe may glow within his veins," and that the faculties of his mind may so expand that he may behold and comprehend the works and designs of his Maker.

Food, next to the purity of the air, determines the degree of the physical well-being; it gives the beauty of contour to the form; it builds up the marvellous structure of the brain; the ravishing smile of the features, the sublimity of thought, depend alike in great measure upon the benign influence of food.

It not only gives to nations their characteristics of strength and solidity, but it bestows upon society more of grace and refinement than philosophy is willing to allow.

II.

The question of alimentation with the civil laborer, exposed to healthy influences of properly distributed air and sunlight, and to the regular motions of a well-conducted life, is easy of solution to the inquiring mind.

But when it relates to the soldier, subjected to strange and unhealthy influences, the explanations involve much study, care, and research.

In the natural condition of man it is easy to determine how much food will support life and sustain physical exertion. The dietaries of the public inst.i.tutions of different countries, the experiments of physiologists, and the records of history give the data with sufficient clearness. As to the amount of food required daily to repair the waste and wants of the human organism, much depends upon the degree of muscular exertion and nervous excitation, as well as the temperature of the season. In the alimentation of armies scientific principles must not be disregarded. Food must be considered as force; it must contain, not only material, but power. The strength of men, says Baron Liebig, is in direct ratio to the plastic matter in their food.

In determining the absolute quant.i.ties of nutrient substances required by the system, Lehman observes that there are three magnitudes especially to be considered.

The first is the quant.i.ty requisite to prevent the animal from sinking by starvation. The second is that which affords the right supply of nourishment for the perfect accomplishment of the functions, and the last is that which indicates the amount of nutrient matter which may, under the most favorable circ.u.mstances, be subjected to metamorphosis in the blood. No one of the four cla.s.ses, the carbohydrates, the fats, the alb.u.minous matters, and the salts, will answer the purpose alone, but all must be employed together, and this invariable proportion according to the local, and, therefore, variable waste of the system. These considerations indicate how complicated the problem is.

III.

Life is an action; the principle of life, whatever may be its nature, is eminently and visibly a principle of excitation, of impulsion, a motive power.

"It is taking a false idea of life," says Cuvier, "to consider it as a simple link which binds the elements of the living body together, since, on the contrary, it is a power which moves and sustains them unceasingly."

These elements do not for an instant preserve the same relation and connection; or, in other words, the living body does not for an instant keep the same state and composition. "This law," adds Flourens, "does not affect alone the muscles, viscera, and tissues, but there is a continual mutation of all the parts composing the bone." These views have been substantiated by the extended experiments of Chossat, of Von Bibra, and a host of experimentalists, showing how positive and decided are the changes in the material composition of the body, and especially the const.i.tution of even the bone from the influence of food.

IV.

"It is from the blood that life derives the principles which maintain and repair it. The more vigorous, plastic, and rich in nutritive material, so much the more life increases and manifests itself, so much the quicker the reparatory processes restore a lesion to its natural condition.

"The blood owes its vivifying properties to the presence of oxygen, which it receives by the respiratory organs; but that nourishing fluid, to complete its physiological _role_, needs to receive combustible and organizable material."

These Protean principles of the healthy blood form one fifth of its weight.

Oxygen unites with the carbon of the food in the blood of animals; carbonic acid is formed and heat evolved. When the atmosphere is vitiated, the oxygenating processes are diminished in ratio to the vitiation.

The experiments of Seguin, Crawford, and De la Roche show that in a vitiated and highly heated atmosphere the blood is not thoroughly decarbonized, thereby deranging the nervous system, and affecting the animal functions as well as the mental faculties. The blood is subject to incessant variations. The more feeble the respiration the less rich it is.

Man absorbs twenty to thirty quarts of oxygen every hour. The pure air is a real food, and is as necessary for the development and repair of the physical force as the more solid forms of matter. Nine ounces of carbon are consumed every day, and the phenomenon of the expired carbonic acid has its maxima and minima during the day, like the regular variations of the barometer or the tides of the ocean.

V.

The great nervous prostration and the lack of energy which were observed among the prisoners, were not due entirely to climate. The activity of the nervous mechanism depends greatly upon the supply and purity of the arterial blood. It is the same with the nerve fibres as with the nerve centres, but in less degree. We observe that the exaltation and depression of the nervous power are within the control of man by the administration of certain drugs, or respiration of appropriate gases. The acc.u.mulation of bile or urea in the blood diminishes the nerve energy. Many physiologists enumerate moral depressions among the princ.i.p.al causes of epidemics; and this opinion is not strange when we consider how completely the system is under control of the nervous influence, and how much the supply of oxygen and blood to the organs and tissues depend upon the nervous power; and how much, moreover, the integrity of the nervous system depends upon the purity of the blood.

In the process of starvation, during the struggle for life, the hidden forces in reserve--the superabundant muscle, fat, tissues, even the brain-substance--are gradually absorbed. The volume of blood may remain the same, but the vivifying particles which circulate in the vital stream are rapidly consumed by the wants of the wasting economy, and disappear.

And when these hematic globules are lessened to a certain limit below the normal proportion death ensues. Vierodt has discovered that the limit of this singular law is 52 per 1000 for the dog, and about 60 per 1000 for some other species of the mammalia. The physiologists have shown how the vivifying principles acquire vigor through the blood discs, and how these, when absorbing pure oxygen through the pulmonary circulation, contribute to the development of muscular fibre and the nervous material. Mammals and birds, when deprived of food, die in ten to twenty days, losing from one third to one half of their weight.

VI.

In determining the nutritive value of aliments by the study of their chemical composition, we cannot adhere strictly to the results furnished by a.n.a.lysis. For, says Baron Liebig, we cannot reckon upon results in the human stomach with the same regularity as we would in the alembics of our laboratories.

Physiologists divide alimentary substances into two cla.s.ses: the nitrogenous, which, according to Dumas, supply the demands of a.s.similation, and the non-nitrogenous, which are called by Liebig respiratories, from furnishing the products consumed by respiration.

Neither the one nor the other will alone support life indefinitely, and when one or the other decreases below well-defined limits, health declines, and finally life becomes extinct from inanition.

Milne Edwards gives, as the mean amount of these two cla.s.ses, required for all climates, not less than three hundred and fifteen grains of nitrogen and thirty-three hundred and fifty grains of carbon in the twenty-four hours. These views are adopted by most physiologists; yet the a.n.a.lyses of Schlossberger and Kemp indicate that the idea of estimating the value of food by the quant.i.ty of nitrogen it contains is a fallacious one.

The beautiful experiments of Bernard and the modern physiologists have unfolded many of the laws that regulate digestion and a.s.similation. Yet the human researches in the great arcana of nature are extremely limited, in comparison with the vast range of physical phenomena, and every day we are reminded of the remarks of Boerhaave to his students: "Let all these heroes of science meet together; let them take bread and wine, the food which forms the blood of man, and by a.s.similation contributes to the growth of the body; let them try by all their art, and a.s.suredly they will not be able from these materials to produce a single drop of blood,--so much is the most common act of nature beyond the utmost efforts of the most extended science."

The composition of the typical food of nature is revealed to us in the a.n.a.lysis of human milk.

VII.

The need of varied food is apparent to the casual observer, and it is well proven in the immortal work of Cabanis. "The experience of civilized life has shown," says Professor Horsford, in his admirable pamphlet on the marching ration of armies, "that the human organism requires, to maintain it in health, both organic and inorganic food.

"Of the organic, it needs nitrogenous food for the support of the vital tissues for work; and saccharine, or oleaginous food, for warmth. Of the inorganic, it needs phosphates for the bones, brain, muscles, and blood; and salt for its influence on the circulation and the secretions, and for various purposes where soda is required for a base; and doubtless both phosphates and salt for many offices as yet imperfectly understood. 'A man may be starved by depriving him of phosphates and salt, just as effectively as by depriving him of alb.u.men or oil.' (Dalton's Physiology.)