§ 1. The question of acclimation1 is not confined merely to man’s transfer from one country to another, and to his attempts to accommodate himself to the new locality, to the altered circumstances of his adopted country. As civilized3 man traverses the earth in search of new abodes4, he carries with him the arts of social life, and especially the art of agriculture, by which alone he can exist in congregated6 masses: agriculture, which forms indeed the very basis of civilization.
Whether we view man as a native of the land or a stranger, he cannot evade7 this question; for even as a native and as an individual of a race whose presence on the soil he may inhabit precedes the records of authentic8 history, if he form a portion of civilized society he receives from his ancestors or predecessors9 a system he is bound to improve, or at least to maintain, so that he shall live and thrive, not as the beasts of the field, but as a member of a civilized people. When a hunting tribe of North American Indians, a horde10 of Bedouins, or Hottentots or Caffres, a Turcoman family, or a gipsy encampment, a Cape11 Boer, or an Australian sheep-farmer, sit down by stream, or valley, or lake, they no more influence the soil than a troop of antelopes12 or buffaloes14. Nature’s great processes go on unaffected: they deteriorate16, it is true, by respiration17, the superincumbent atmosphere, but not more than any equal amount of animal life. This deterioration18 the wild plants around, sown by nature herself, speedily removes; the oxygen consumed by savage19 man and the animal life around, equally wild, is speedily renovated20 by vegetation, and the oxygen they remove from the atmosphere and the carbonic acid they pour into it, rapidly and constantly recover their equilibrium21 under the influence of vegetation. Thus, neither the earth (soil), air, nor water, is in any way influenced by his presence, nor is he in general affected15 by these; there is no reciprocal influence for good or bad: he cuts down no forests, grows no wheat, or but little, makes no canals, drains no marsh-lands, poisons no rivers; the refuse of his dwellings23, the excreta of such a population, are not sensibly perceived, even if allowed to rot and waste away on the surface—a practice prevalent with most if not all wild and uncultivated people; it rapidly disappears, disintegrated24 by processes in which the lower forms of animal life take a part. Now, contemplate26 the picture civilized man presents, and see him in direct antagonism27 with nature! The plants of nature’s sowing are rudely torn up with the plough and destroyed, the fields are forced to yield crops by which he lives, and what he takes from the soil must, to use the language of chemists, “be restored to it:” the excreta of man and animals, the refuse of dwellings, the deteriorated28 and poisoned liquids, the products of manufactories, are collected into heaps, to rot on the surface of the soil, before being dug into it; or are thrown into the rivers, to poison, in a certain sense, the waters on which man lives, rendering29 their banks, if not pestilential, at least most unpleasant as human abodes; canals are dug, vast reservoirs are formed, which in time give rise by mismanagement to fevers, intermittent30 and others; the minerals of the earth are quarried31 and placed on the soil, mines are dug, and from them waters are discharged into the neighbouring streams, strongly poisoned with the metallic32 ores. To imagine that an influence thus affecting earth, air, and water can proceed and increase without affecting human life, can be overcome by habit, does not require to be met by counter-influences originating in the experience and reasoning of man himself, is a supposition which the history of large cities refutes. The influence is reciprocal. When man thus acts on the three elements of nature by which he lives, they react on him, and it is this reaction he is called on to meet and to overcome as best he can. It is a question of reason and experiment—that is, of science and of simple observation; simple observation and experiment taught the native Peruvians the value of guano, for science had at that time no standing33 on the American continent; and now the chemist steps in and explains why it was that the experiment proved successful. Whether his explanation be satisfactory or not, touches not the question; though proved to be erroneous in a single instance, as it possibly is in regard of this very Peruvian guano, science stands on too secure a basis to require any defence from me.
It is one of the conditions of civilization, that man must everywhere accept the social system within which he lives. Whether a dweller34 in detached cottages and farm-houses, or congregated into townships and villages; collected in masses, as in towns and cities, his endeavour is to protect his dwelling22 from all that is offensive and from whatever may prove injurious to the health of himself and family. An ancient adage35 tells us not to act contrary to nature; but as nature reveals nothing to us, as her intentions can only be read by the lights of science and reason, or science based on observation and experiment, whence human reason draws deductions36 conformable with its power, so is it most difficult for man to say what is best to be done under all circumstances. When a man builds a cottage, a house, or a palace, after duly attending to the surface-drains, he constructs near his dwelling, sometimes beneath it, a cesspool and a dead-well, the former intended to receive the more solid excreta, the latter the soil-water of the kitchen—the water, in fact, used in the domestic economy of the house. If the dead-well or pit dug to receive the soiled water of the house be sufficiently37 deep, it filters through the soil, and thus requires no clearing out—if not, it overflows38 the court or garden, and speedily renders the place uninhabitable. The cesspool, if deep enough and properly secured, remains39 for many years unknown and unperceived, until filled; it may even be forgotten altogether, and its very existence remain unknown, until disclosed by accident; but whatever be its age or condition, so soon as its contents are exposed to the air, it is found to have continued unaltered; and if spread on the fields, as I have seen done, renders the vicinity for some time unendurable, thus proving the sagacity of the Jewish legislator in his instructions to that people to whom he gave laws and regulations to serve them for all time to come.34
If the adage I have quoted above be true—namely, that we must not act contrary to nature—there is another of the truth of which we feel more assured. It is this: whenever man interferes40 with nature, he must take the whole matter on himself, and be prepared to meet every contingency42. Nature gave us streams and rivers more or less pure, whose banks are more or less salubrious. If man pours into these streams and rivers the refuse of towns and cities, he must be prepared to meet the result of the experiment. It may be good—it may be bad to him: this he cannot know beforehand; but reason tells him that the experiment is likely to prove injurious. It may be less injurious than burying the excreta in cesspools under his house, or court, or garden;35 but this I doubt. In the meantime, how does civilized man protect himself from a source of disease respecting which there never was a doubt—the natural humidity of the soil on which he has erected43 his dwelling, in which he sleeps and lives? To meet this evil he forms surface drains around his house and garden and court. Into these collect the humidity natural to the soil, as well as rains of heaven. These drains, adulterated by no intermixture with the refuse of house and stables, terminate in the nearest streams, and serve to maintain these streams and rivers into which they flow at their natural standard.
Thus, before it was discovered that the best way of dealing44 with these difficult questions was to break down the distinction between drain and sewer45 (thus poisoning, probably for all time to come, the air of towns and cities), construct a sewer which soon becomes a cloaca to receive all, and in open day and above ground throw the contents into the nearest stream—imitating old Rome, without knowing anything of Rome’s municipal economy, our forefathers46 drew a marked and clear distinction—1st, between drain and sewer; 2nd, between a cesspool and a dead-well; 3rd, between the excreta of man, which they knew to be offensive, and that of animals, which all were well aware are innoxious: the latter they restored to the fields, the former they disposed of as best they could.
Society, having rejected in this instance the experience of their forefathers, enters now on a new phasis. Nature, about which they talk so much, will not suffer them to rest half way. Bad odours pervade48 the streets, courts, and houses: rivers can scarcely be approached. Chemists affirm that that which is thrown into the sea should be returned to the land. It is this question, in so far as it bears on the matter discussed in this chapter, I shall now briefly49 discuss.
There lie before me the “Letters on Chemistry” of an illustrious German chemist.36 They contain the expression of the latest scientific results hitherto attained51. Whatever view those who follow us may adopt, we must in the meantime accept, to a certain extent, of those contained in these “Letters.” A phenomenon must be accepted as a fact until refuted by another; and the last experiment, until refuted, expresses the nearest approach to that truth which, up to the moment, man had been able to attain50. Simple observation tells man many truths. It shows him that out of grass, herbivora, or grass-eating animals of all kinds—from the timid hare to the swift and powerful horse—from the fierce buffalo13 to the sagacious and irresistible52 elephant—find the means for forming muscle and bones, viscera and skin. Out of a similar food man himself, though no doubt omnivorous53, can also derive54 the means of support. The rice-eating population of India are not deficient55 in energy; whilst it is equally certain, though less surprising, no doubt, that out of that which once was a living animal, man and the carnivora derive a considerable part of their subsistence.
No experiments can set aside these simple views, which indeed form the basis of all inquiry56; but civilized man, as I have shown, appeals to the soil mainly for support. He trusts to the cerealia, and to those exuberant57 and abundant crops of legumina and of grains required for the support of herds58 of animals, which the uncultivated field could never maintain. Hence arose agriculture, the most useful of all the practical arts—not yet a science, but likely in time to become one.
Chemists assert—and I see no reason to doubt their experiments—that the ash of the blood of graminivorous animals is identical with that of the ash of grain; the incombustible constituents60 of the blood of men, and of such animals as consume a mixed food, are the constituents of the ashes of bread, flesh, and vegetables; the carnivorous animal contains in its blood the constituents of the ash of flesh.37 All these substances ought to be found in grass alone.
In these processes it would seem that phosphoric acid plays a most important, and, as it would seem, an essential part. To this I shall return: at present I merely consider man’s influence on the soil or earth he lives on, what he derives61 from it, and what he returns to it, and in what form it is and ought to be returned. If it be true that without trees there would be no underwood, no corn, and no crops,—for trees attract the fertilizing62 rain, and cause the springs perpetually to flow which diffuse63 prosperity and comfort,—then assuredly man ought to be most careful in interfering64 with nature. It is the remark, I think of the illustrious Humboldt, that when the white man took possession of certain districts of North America, vast forests prevailed everywhere. On taking possession, experience showed that agues prevailed, and that wheat might be grown successfully. The forests have been now destroyed, and agues have disappeared; but phthisis pulmonalis prevails, and wheat no longer grows to maturity66. We interfere41 with the soil as nature made it when we force it to produce from one acre the natural produce of ten; we interfere with the processes of nature when we load the air with the products of thousands of furnaces, manufactories, and the poison exhaled67 from poisonous rivers and brooks68; and we interfere with nature when we alter the constitution of those streams and rivers from a natural to an artificial state, loading them with the refuse of our artificially-drained fields, &c.
Let us listen to Liebig on a matter to which he has given the utmost possible attention:—
“Experience in agriculture shows that the production of vegetables on a given surface increases with the supply of certain matters, originally part of the soil which had been taken up from it by plants—the excreta of man and animals. These are nothing more than matters derived69 from vegetable food, which in the vital processes of animals, or after their death, assume again the form under which they originally existed as parts of the soil. Now we know that the atmosphere contains none of those substances, and therefore can replace none; and we know that their removal from a soil destroys its fertility, which may be restored and increased by a new supply. Is it possible, after so many decisive investigations71 into the origin of the elements of animals and vegetables, the use of the alkalies of lime and the phosphates, that any doubt can exist as to the principles upon which a rational agriculture depends? Can the art of agriculture be based upon anything but the restitution72 of a disturbed equilibrium? Can it be imagined that any country, however rich and fertile, with a flourishing commerce, which for centuries exports its produce in the shape of grain and cattle, will maintain its fertility if the same commerce does not restore, in some form of manure73, those elements which have been removed from the soil, and which cannot be replaced by the atmosphere? Must not the same fate await every such country, which has actually befallen the once prolific74 soil of Virginia, now in many parts no longer able to grow its former staple76 productions—wheat and tobacco? In the large towns of England the produce both of English and foreign agriculture is largely consumed. Elements of the soil indispensable to plants, do not return to the fields; contrivances resulting from the manners and customs of the English people, and peculiar77 to them, render it difficult, perhaps impossible, to collect the enormous quantity of the phosphates which are daily, as solid and liquid excreta, carried into the rivers. These phosphates, although present in the soil in the smallest quantity, are its most important mineral constituents. It was observed that many English fields exhausted78 in that manner, immediately doubled their produce as if by a miracle when dressed with bone earth imported from the Continent. But if the export of bones from Germany is continued to the extent it has now reached, our soil must be gradually exhausted, and the extent of our loss may be estimated by considering that one pound of bones contains as much phosphoric acid as a hundredweight of grain.”
Many practical farmers, I am aware, still doubt the facts and theories of chemistry as applied79 to agriculture; with them I am free to admit that agriculture is not a science as yet, but an experimental art. With this I have nothing to do directly, my object being to show in this chapter in how far civilized man modifies and influences the soil on which he lives. He, the practical farmer, clings to farmyard manure, which he collects in heaps in his farmyard, or by the roadside, exposed to every change of weather, to drenching80 rains, to summer heat, and winter’s cold; from it run in streams over the roads the liquid parts of the manure, carrying with them the soluble81 salts; out of what is left when it has become rotten he hopes to restore to the field what it lost during the previous crop, and to a certain extent he succeeds; on the other hand, the chemist argues that the grand object of modern agriculture is to substitute for farmyard manure, that universal food of plants, their elements, obtained from other and cheaper sources retaining its full efficacy; and this can only be done when we shall have learned, what as yet we know but imperfectly, how to give to an artificial mixture of the individual ingredients the mechanical form and chemical qualities essential to their reception, and to their nutritive action on the plant; for without this form they cannot perfectly82 supply the place of farmyard manure. All our labours must be devoted83 to the attainment84 of this important object.
However this may be, and however it may be explained by the chemists, it must be admitted that to the accidental discovery of bone manure England owes many turnip85 crops, and to the introduction of guano from Peru and Ichaboe crops of wheat which no other manure as yet known could have produced. Peruvian guano, the best of all, is the excreta of a sea bird; these excreta, placed in a clear and perfectly dry atmosphere, have been exposed for centuries to a tropical sun; no rain falls on the heaps, trodden down only by the gentle feet of the birds themselves.
That out of such a product there should arise so excellent a manure surpasses all previous reasoning derived from mere2 science.38 It is obvious, then, that much still remains to be discovered. Were any proof of this required, we might refer to the agriculture of China, where, as has been reported, human excreta alone are used as manure, and with a success unequalled in any other part of the world. In that singular land they have discovered much, or using perhaps the discoveries of preceding races, have turned them to the best account. Their agriculture is said to be perfect.
With such a system of manure and such a population one might predicate a condition of earth, air, and water, incompatible86 with human life. Now the very reverse happens, at least, in so far as regards the Chinese themselves.
No land so teems87 with a population strong, active, and in robust88 health; true, it does not suit the European constitution; fever and dysentery sweep off the troops and sailors of European nations who visit the Celestial89 Empire for the purpose of trade or of plunder90. There is a something unknown in the climate unsuitable to the European; the condition of the earth, air, and water of China, is fatal to him. In which of these does the noxious47 element reside—in all or in none? This is possible; but man in the meantime must decide by what he knows and sees. Here is a land teeming91 with life; on land, as on its waters, millions live; but that life, as regards man, is confined to the Chinese race, and is unsuited to the European; as regards the soil, manured in so strange a manner, it also is Chinese. Is it that we, generally speaking, spread the material in a liquid and vastly diluted92 form over the fields, whilst they manipulate and remove from it all moisture? There may be something in this, for it is known that organic compounds, above all, are most susceptible93 of change by the least perceivable alterations94 in their constituents. Agriculture is both a science and an art.
“The clearing of the primeval forests of America, facilitating the access of the air to that soil, so rich in vegetable remains, alters gradually, but altogether, its constitution; after the lapse95 of a few years no trace of organic remains can be found in it. The soil of Germany, in the time of Tacitus, was covered with a dense96, almost impenetrable forest; it must at that period have exactly resembled the soil of America, and have been rich in humus and vegetable substances; but all the products of vegetable life in those primeval forests have completely vanished from our perceptions. The innumerable millions of molluscous and other animals, whose remains form extensive geological formations and mountains, have after death passed into a state of fermentation and putrefaction97, and subsequently, by the continuous action of the atmosphere, all their soft parts have been transposed into gaseous98 compounds, and their shells and bones, their indestructible constituents, alone remain to furnish evidence of the existence of life continually extinguished and continually reproduced.”
If these facts are to be depended on, they explain much of the influence which man exercises over the soil, and of its reaction on himself; the hay ague or fever is the produce of his own hands; when he leaves on the surface millions of tons of fermentable99 and putrescible organic remains, he prepares for himself some at least of the diseases which are to follow. It is possible that epidemic100 influence, over which he neither has nor can have any control, might be greatly modified, and its evil effects abated101 by prudent102 action on his part. Typhus fever, the scourge103 of modern Europe, may not originate in any condition of the soil produced by man, but it sweeps thousands in the prime of life from the earth when placed in circumstances clearly dependent on man himself. Ten thousand young men are lodged104 in a barrack; speedily hundreds of these are swept off by typhus or consumption of the lungs; now something causes this, and the cause may rest with man himself. Pestilence105 and typhus follow in the train of famine; if they originate in fermentescible and putrescible substances, all these were present prior to the famine, and yet were not equal to the production of the maladies. Next comes famine, and prepares the way for malaria106 to do its work. The question, as may be already seen, is not so simple as chemists supposed it to be. The number of substances occurring in nature which are truly putrescible is singularly small;39 but they are everywhere diffused107, and form part of every organized being. To form an idea of what this amounts to, we have but to reflect on the life which naturally exists on the earth, and on that which is the result of man’s social condition. Let but the acre of heath or bog108, even of pasture, which in its natural state supports so little of what lives, be converted into a garden, a wheat field, a nursery, and see what an amount of putrescible matter is the result. Let that spot on which nature has placed a single peasant’s family be converted into a city, and reflect on the influence man exerts on that soil. It is, I believe, a fact universally admitted, that all those substances which destroy the communicability or arrest the propagation of contagions109 and miasms, are likewise such as arrest all processes of putrefaction or fermentation; that under the influence of empyreumatic bodies, such as pyroligneous acid, which powerfully oppose putrefaction, the diseased action in malignant110 suppurating wounds is entirely111 changed; that in a number of contagious112 diseases, especially typhus, ammonia, free or combined, is found in the exposed air, in the liquid and solid excreta (in the latter as ammonio-phosphate of magnesia); such being the case, it seems impossible any longer to entertain a doubt as to the origin and propagation of many contagious diseases.
“Finally, it is an observation universally made, and which may be regarded as established, ‘that the origin of epidemic diseases may often be referred to the putrefaction of great masses of animal and vegetable matters; that miasmic113 diseases are found epidemic, where decomposition114 of organic substances constantly goes on, in marshy115 and damp districts. These diseases also become epidemic, under the same circumstances, after inundations, and also in places where a large number of persons are crowded together with imperfect ventilation, as in ships, in prisons, and in besieged116 fortresses117.’40 But in no case may we so securely reckon on the occurrence of epidemic diseases, as when a marshy surface has been dried up by continued heat, or when extensive inundations are followed by intense heat.”
If we admit these facts we shall be less surprised at the ravages118 committed by fever, when, after great battles, the wounded are placed in the hospitals of large cities, as in Brussels after Waterloo, in Bilboa, Vienna, &c. Hospital gangrene, the scourge and terror of the wounded, soon shows itself, and cannot be arrested by any known surgical119 means. Much better were it for the wounded that they had been left on the field of battle. An erroneous opinion prevails, that it is to the presence of the infusoria that the evil influences are to be traced; they, on the contrary, whilst alive, act a beneficial part. The excreta of man whilst putrifying never exhibit the presence of microscopic120 animalcul?, whilst we find abundance of them in the same matters when in a state of decay. “A wise arrangement of nature has assigned to the infusoria the dead bodies of higher orders of beings for their nourishment121, and has in these animalcul? created a means of limiting to the shortest possible period the deleterious influence which the products of dissolution and decay exercise upon the life of the higher classes of animals. The recent discoveries which have been made respecting these creatures are so extraordinary and so admirable, that they deserve to be made universally known.”
It is not to that which lives, but to that which has lived and is now dead, that we must look for the sources of those terrible fevers which destroy humanity in so many fine countries. Nor is it necessary that marshes122 be present, nor recently inundated123 lands. Egypt, annually124 inundated, is healthy at all times, but it is always cultivated; the desert also, which is never cultivated, and incapable125 of any cultivation126, is also healthy. The Arabian desert which skirts the cultivated spots, converting them into so many oases127, is perfectly healthy; on its soil the traveller may sleep securely; but let him cross the boundary of the water drain or stream forming the oasis128, and sleep within the limits of that vegetation so delightful129 to look at, and violent fever is sure to overtake him on the morrow, so powerfully in this instance does nature react on man, when altering the soil, he prepares with his own hand the flowery path which leads him to the grave.
§ 2. On the Origin and Action of Humus.—To Liebig we unquestionably owe the first philosophical130 investigation70 into the history of humus. Innumerable difficulties and prejudices beset131 the inquiry. It was he who first showed that all vegetables and all their component132 parts, so soon as they cease to live, become liable to two forms of decomposition,—to putrefaction and to rottenness, that is to fermentation, and to that slow combustion133 to which Liebig gave the name of eremacausis, a Greek term, expressing by its original meaning the fact of slow combustion, to which the illustrious German likened that process which we commonly express by the term of pourriture, or rottenness. By this last-named process the combustible59 parts of bodies in decomposition combine with the oxygen of the air.
The decomposition of the rotting of the woody fibre is attended with this peculiarity—when in contact with the air, it converts the oxygen into an equal volume of carbonic acid; so soon as the supply of the oxygen ceases the rottenness stops. Now remove this carbonic acid, and add a fresh supply of oxygen, and the rotting commences, and carbonic acid reappears. The presence of water is essential to this change; the substances called antiseptic arrest it at once. Now the woody fibre in this condition of slow combustion or rottenness is precisely134 what we call humus or ulmine.
The functions of this humus are no doubt remarkable135, and in respect of it some agricultural theories have been formed, resting on no solid basis. What seems to be tolerably well ascertained136 is, that in a soil permeable to air, the oxygen of the atmosphere continues to act on the humus, giving origin to carbonic acid, and thus furnishing an atmosphere for the roots of plants growing in that soil. The springing of the roots themselves seems to depend on the presence of this atmosphere; hence the labour and pains to pulverize137 the soil, and to give access by such processes to the atmospheric138 air. At this period of their growth the roots perform all the offices of their leaves which are ultimately to appear; and soon the plant has two sets of nourishing organs, the roots and the leaves. In hot summers plants derive their carbonic acid wholly from the air.
Thus gradually is formed that humus or ulmine to which agriculturists attach so much importance; that vegetable mould supposed to be the richest of all soils. But where it forms, a kind of putrefaction continually goes on; the soil is influenced deeply as a residence for man. No valetudinarian139 takes up his abode5 in the centre of a rich vegetation in hopes of recovering his health and strength, his elastic140 step, and freedom from lassitude and weariness; he, on the contrary, seeks other regions, where vegetation is scant141, humus is not forming, and the soil is never turned over by human industry.
When vegetation is purely142 natural, that is when man does not interfere, the growth of plants does not in the least exhaust the soil. Look at the meadow and the virgin75 forest! Now chemistry explains this, or nearly so. But so soon as man interferes, he must be prepared to undertake the whole labour; if he acts on the earth, the air, and the waters, they will react on him, and sometimes with fearful effect. Beyond the processes she exhibits, and which he may read as best he can, she reveals nothing; all her secrets must be extracted from her by science, by philosophy, by the slow procedure of experiment and observation. A traveller from a distant land prepares to cross deserts of which he has had no previous experience; shortly he discovers an oasis, which to him seems a paradise, and he proposes resting for the night within its treacherous143 circle; but the wild Arab, the native guide, knows better, and explains to him briefly that the desert alone is healthy, and to rest a night within that seeming paradise is death. It is the Homeric tale of the syrens reduced to a reality; gorgeous decorated plants, sweet-smelling flowers, perfumes of Arabia, invite you to enter that island destined144, should you unhappily accept the invitation, to prove the resting-place of all your labours.
It may seem paradoxical to maintain that by cultivation we at times render the earth insalubrious, at times comparatively the reverse, but the fact is so. It was Humboldt, as I have already remarked, who said that when Europeans first emigrated to America, the soil of certain northern states was found equal to the growth of wheat, and ague afflicted145 the population. With the destruction of the forests, the agues have disappeared, and wheat can no longer be grown; in the place of agues men are now afflicted with pulmonary consumption. Whoever has seen the marshy and boggy146 land, at times a lake, at others a black tremulous morass147, and compared it with the rich drained Polder, its neat and compact farm-house, exhaustless meadows, herds of cattle, and the contented148 air of its well-to-do proprietor149, will at once perceive that whatever might be the evil, unless it were a something truly grievous, so delightful a metamorphosis of a spot doomed150 by nature to eternal sterility151, entailed152 on man, that evil was fully65 compensated153 for by the results obtained towards man’s happiness. There is, there can be, or at least there never was, any unmixed good on earth: the whole is a system of comparison and compensation; of profit or loss; of gains and drawbacks.
When the English army died off at Walcheren the inhabitants of the province were perfectly healthy, and could not comprehend the cause of the calamity154. It was the same in the Crimea. Under other arrangements, those more consonant155 with common sense and experience, the results might have been different; still it is certain that masses of young men of immature156 years cannot be withdrawn157 from their native soil and parents’ hearths158 without suffering severely159 the consequence of the every way unnatural160 position they are forced to occupy; unnatural physically161 and morally. Barrack-rooms are not homes. No varied162 society is to be found there; no amusement, no employment for mind and body; it is man cut off from all human industry and enjoyment163; no solace164 when ill, no comfort under suffering: that young men with unformed constitutions should “die off like flies,”41 need excite no surprise.
To return: to modern science, above all to Liebig, the practical chemist par25 excellence165, we owe the discovery of the true office of ulmine or humus in vegetation; it nourishes the plant before it is in a position to draw its nourishment from the atmosphere. The vegetation called antediluvian166 had this peculiar character, that it enabled the plant to be greatly independent of roots and soil; its broad-leaved foliage167 sought everywhere for food in the carbonic acid of the atmosphere. Accordingly all the plants were remarkable for the smallness of their roots, which generally have disappeared, and are now no longer to be found.
Let me now consider briefly—keeping the same object in view, namely, its influence on man—what are the sources and results of that amount of hydrogen or azote which plays so important a part in the economy of all that lives.
An agricultural farmer at a distance from markets sufficiently remunerative168, has a large field of turnips169 which he knows not how to dispose of. Not having cattle or sheep sufficient to consume these turnips, he addresses himself to drivers of sheep on the way to the markets, inviting170 them to turn their sheep into the field, and there remain until the turnips are consumed. Thus he hopes to restore to the field the azotized and other principles removed from it by previous crops, and to prepare the way for fresh and more productive and profitable crops. It is on the same principle that in many leases of farms (those called steel-bow) there is an express clause that the straw shall not quit the farm, but be consumed on it. The object of this is simply to restore to the soil what forced crops have removed from it. Man has taken on himself the task of growing on one acre the natural produce of many; to feed twenty men instead of one from off the same extent of soil; to live in crowded cities, drawing their provisions from the surrounding country, producing nothing of themselves; to feed millions where nature intended but a few thousands should exist; he has taken the task on himself and must carry it through, exposed to destruction at every false step, and at this moment exposed to the accusation171 by the medical authorities of England of deliberately172 rendering his farm-house, his homestead, his cottage, his mansion173, his palace, a pesthouse, the propagator, if not the absolute generator174, of all the wide-spread plagues and pestilences175, from that which desolated176 Athens in the time of Thucydides; laid waste the Roman world when Justinian reigned177; smote178 England in the most unhappy and disgraceful period of past history;42 and now, appearing amidst the tents of an obscure Arab tribe, ignorant of agriculture, living with their flocks and herds on the desert, happily remote from the influences of boards of health, officers of health, and registrars-general, once more threatens Europe; he is accused, in fact, of being the involuntary but certain slaughterer179 of his little babes. So says the eloquent180 Registrar-General of England in one of his sanitary181 reports; he belongs, it is true, and this must not be forgotten, to the theory-loving fraternity,43 a professor, in fact, of that conjectural182 art which heretofore despised statistics, and which now, by mistaking figures for facts, threatens to convert true science into a scheme of fictions anything but brilliant. To the Chadwicks, the Gavins, and a host of others still more potent183, but who always act through the agency of employées, we owe the affair of Luton and of Birmingham, of the disgraceful condition of the Thames and of innumerable other localities; the deodorizing schemes of Leicester and Bristol, the intercepting184 scheme of the Thames, and the network of officers of health, amounting to 2600, now spread over England for the benefit of this tax-loving country.
If you hope to raise a crop you must replace in the soil certain elements which previous crops have removed from it. So says Liebig, and to some extent the experience of mankind supports the view.
The refuse of men and urinals which English speculators recommend you to throw into the nearest river, or into the sea if you can, or at least to deluge185 well with water before throwing it over your fields, the Belgian farmer places as nearly as may be under ground until required. Of it he forms a compost, seemingly inoffensive as being in some measure buried, trapped, and mixed with house refuse, and other materials. This compost, to which he looks in due time for the restoration to his well-managed farm of that which abundant crops had removed from it, he spreads at convenient and suitable times on his ground, into which it is speedily dug; thus at every step he reverses the theories of the would-be agriculturists of England, and should it be said that the measures he adopts are injurious to his health, destructive to his family, sources of pestilence to the country, we have the sure and trustworthy statistics of a true statistician44 to oppose to the wild theories and bold assertions of the needy186 adventurers and hired officials who, clamouring so loudly for place and distinction, have chosen for the field of their tactics broad England and her colonies.
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1
acclimation
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| n.服水土，顺应，适应环境；服习；驯化 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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abodes
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| 住所( abode的名词复数 )； 公寓； （在某地的）暂住； 逗留 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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congregated
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| （使）集合，聚集( congregate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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predecessors
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| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
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horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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antelopes
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| 羚羊( antelope的名词复数 )； 羚羊皮革 | |
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buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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buffaloes
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| n.水牛（分非洲水牛和亚洲水牛两种）( buffalo的名词复数 )；（南非或北美的）野牛；威胁；恐吓 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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deteriorate
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| v.变坏；恶化；退化 | |
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respiration
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| n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用 | |
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deterioration
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| n.退化；恶化；变坏 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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renovated
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| 翻新，修复，整修( renovate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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equilibrium
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| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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disintegrated
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| v.（使）破裂[分裂，粉碎]，（使）崩溃( disintegrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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antagonism
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| n.对抗，敌对，对立 | |
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deteriorated
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| 恶化，变坏( deteriorate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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quarried
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| v.从采石场采得( quarry的过去式和过去分词 )；从（书本等中）努力发掘（资料等）；在采石场采石 | |
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metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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dweller
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| n.居住者，住客 | |
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adage
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| n.格言，古训 | |
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deductions
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| 扣除( deduction的名词复数 )； 结论； 扣除的量； 推演 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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overflows
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| v.溢出，淹没( overflow的第三人称单数 )；充满；挤满了人；扩展出界，过度延伸 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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interferes
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| vi. 妨碍，冲突，干涉 | |
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41
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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contingency
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| n.意外事件，可能性 | |
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43
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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sewer
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| n.排水沟，下水道 | |
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46
forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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47
noxious
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| adj.有害的，有毒的；使道德败坏的，讨厌的 | |
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48
pervade
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| v.弥漫，遍及，充满，渗透，漫延 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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50
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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51
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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52
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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53
omnivorous
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| adj.杂食的 | |
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54
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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57
exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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59
combustible
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| a. 易燃的,可燃的; n. 易燃物,可燃物 | |
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constituents
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| n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素 | |
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61
derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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fertilizing
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| v.施肥( fertilize的现在分词 ) | |
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diffuse
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| v.扩散；传播；adj.冗长的；四散的，弥漫的 | |
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interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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exhaled
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的过去式和过去分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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72
restitution
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| n.赔偿；恢复原状 | |
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manure
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| n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥 | |
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prolific
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| adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的 | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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staple
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| n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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80
drenching
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| n.湿透v.使湿透( drench的现在分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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soluble
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| adj.可溶的；可以解决的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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83
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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84
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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turnip
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| n.萝卜，芜菁 | |
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incompatible
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| adj.不相容的，不协调的，不相配的 | |
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87
teems
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| v.充满( teem的第三人称单数 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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91
teeming
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| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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diluted
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| 无力的，冲淡的 | |
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susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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alterations
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| n.改动( alteration的名词复数 )；更改；变化；改变 | |
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lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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putrefaction
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| n.腐坏，腐败 | |
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gaseous
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| adj.气体的，气态的 | |
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fermentable
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| adj.可发酵的，发酵性的 | |
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epidemic
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| n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的 | |
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101
abated
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| 减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 )； 减去； 降价； 撤消（诉讼） | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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scourge
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| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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malaria
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| n.疟疾 | |
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diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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bog
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| n.沼泽；室...陷入泥淖 | |
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contagions
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| 传染( contagion的名词复数 )； 接触传染； 道德败坏； 歪风 | |
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malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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contagious
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| adj.传染性的，有感染力的 | |
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113
miasmic
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| adj.瘴气的；有害的 | |
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114
decomposition
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| n. 分解, 腐烂, 崩溃 | |
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115
marshy
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| adj.沼泽的 | |
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116
besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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117
fortresses
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| 堡垒，要塞( fortress的名词复数 ) | |
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118
ravages
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| 劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹 | |
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surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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120
microscopic
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| adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的 | |
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121
nourishment
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| n.食物，营养品；营养情况 | |
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122
marshes
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| n.沼泽，湿地( marsh的名词复数 ) | |
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123
inundated
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| v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付 | |
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124
annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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125
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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126
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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127
oases
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| n.（沙漠中的）绿洲( oasis的名词复数 )；（困苦中）令人快慰的地方（或时刻）；乐土；乐事 | |
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128
oasis
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| n.（沙漠中的）绿洲，宜人的地方 | |
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129
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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130
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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131
beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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132
component
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| n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的 | |
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133
combustion
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| n.燃烧；氧化；骚动 | |
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134
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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135
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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136
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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pulverize
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| v.研磨成粉；摧毁 | |
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atmospheric
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| adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的 | |
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valetudinarian
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| n.病人；健康不佳者 | |
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140
elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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143
treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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144
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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boggy
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| adj.沼泽多的 | |
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morass
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| n.沼泽，困境 | |
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148
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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149
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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150
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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151
sterility
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| n.不生育，不结果，贫瘠，消毒，无菌 | |
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entailed
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| 使…成为必要( entail的过去式和过去分词 )； 需要； 限定继承； 使必需 | |
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153
compensated
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| 补偿，报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 )； 给（某人）赔偿（或赔款） | |
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154
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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155
consonant
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| n.辅音；adj.[音]符合的 | |
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156
immature
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| adj.未成熟的，发育未全的，未充分发展的 | |
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157
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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158
hearths
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| 壁炉前的地板，炉床，壁炉边( hearth的名词复数 ) | |
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159
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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160
unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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161
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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162
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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163
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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164
solace
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| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
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165
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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166
antediluvian
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| adj.史前的，陈旧的 | |
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167
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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168
remunerative
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| adj.有报酬的 | |
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169
turnips
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| 芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表 | |
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170
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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171
accusation
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| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
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172
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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173
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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174
generator
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| n.发电机，发生器 | |
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175
pestilences
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| n.瘟疫， （尤指）腺鼠疫( pestilence的名词复数 ) | |
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176
desolated
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| adj.荒凉的，荒废的 | |
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177
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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178
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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179
slaughterer
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| 屠夫，刽子手 | |
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180
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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181
sanitary
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| adj.卫生方面的，卫生的，清洁的，卫生的 | |
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182
conjectural
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| adj.推测的 | |
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183
potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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184
intercepting
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| 截取（技术），截接 | |
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185
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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186
needy
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| adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的 | |
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