The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-06-05
WAR SEEN BY SCIENCE
Camille Flammarion Gives the
Mathematics of Slaughter.
EACH MAN SLAIN COSTS $1,000.
Humanity Opens Its Veins to See the
Blood FIow-The Earth Could sup
port Ten Times It's Population.

Gan human Jolly. reSarueu from soiiS
special point of view, be considered sub
ject for scientific observation We do not
hesitate to answer in the affirmative,
although up to the present time 1t mas
never been classified. and although II
forms q whole too vast and too complex
to belong to any special genus or oe-
termined category, its magnitude ana
universally have doubtless hitherto
kept it outside OF positive studies,
properly so called. Even now We do
not pretend to treat the immense sub
ject in its full extent, but simply wish to
examine one of the most interesting and
serious phases, and one most worthy OF
attention: namely, the military system OF
the fourteen hundred million human
beings who at this moment people the
strange little planet which. since the be-
ginning of the world has been wandering
between Mars and Venus.
Humanity is continually at war against
itself without ever having taken time to
reflect and ask the reason why. 1t opens
its veins for the simple pleasure of seeing
its noble blood flow, blood that is always
young and continually renewed.
How many men are destroyed by war In
century, Official reports and documents
preserved in the best accredited historical
treatises enable us easily to calculate the
number of soldiers who have been killed or
have died during modern wars. Thus, for
example, we know that during the unac-
countable Franco-German war of 1901,
100000 victims were slain on the two sides;
that during the useless Crimean war of
1s54-55, 7s5, 600 W ere slain; that during the
short Italian war of 1859. 63. 600 men fell on
the field of battle or died in hospitals;
that the game of chess between Prussia
and Austria in 1865 deprived 5000 in
dividuals of life; that in the United
States the strife between the North and
South caused the death of 100000
men in 1S60-64; we know also that
the wars of the first empire poured
out the blood of 100000 Europeans, and
morever that France has taken up arms
twenty times since 1915. On adding the
number of victims of war during the last
century total of 19.s40,9O0 is reached
simply in the civilized countries of Europe
and in the United States.
Commencing with the Trojan war, the
case has been the same in all ages of his
tory. Certain remarkable battles, fought
hand to hand with knife or club, have had
the memorable honor of leaving as many as
two hundred thousand men dead on the
field; as examples of this We cite the defeat
of the Cimbrians and the Teutons by
Marius, and the last exploits of Attila.
The crusades in particular merit honor
able mention, as much for their mildness
as for their usefulness. Without losing
ourselves in details, let us be content to
prove that an average of Is, 900, 600 TO 90
100000 men are killed every century
in Europe by the enlightened IN
stitution of war; If these men, averag-
ing thirty years of age. should join hands
they would form line 4, 500 leagues long,
crossing all Europe and Asia; the Euro
pean epidemic of war gradually attacks
them like an electric storm, killing and
stretching them on the ground; every GEN.
fury similar line springs from the earth
to fall in the same way.
The nations of the extreme Orient (the
Chinese and their neighbors) form second
human consolidation, and shed about the
same quantity of blood. We call to mind
their glorious heroes. Gengis Khan and
Tamerlane, who marked their routes with
pyramids of severed heads. Barbarous
nations also are engaged in perpetual COM
bats, seldom killing fewer than four to five
million rational beings in the same space
of time.
The total number destroyed by human
ity every century in its incessant political.
religious or international wars is at least
100000.
General statistics prove at the same time
that since the Trojan war. 5000 years ago,
that is, since the beginning of history not a
single year has elapsed in which some war
has not killed its proportionate number
What am Isaying? Since the Trojan war
If one may believe Christian tradition had
nf M IS oil rft
And is it not on the defeat of the rebellious
angels that the existence of the devil, the
temptation of Eve, the fall of Adam, ORR
ginai sin and the coming Of the Redeemer,
that is, the very foundations OF Christi
anity, are firmly established?
During the twenty centuries which have
elapsed since the beginning OF Asiatic and
European history--since the time OF Sesos-
iris and David, of Xerxes and Cyrus-a
loss of 100000 a century makes the total
number destroyed by war to be 200 O0O,-
900, a number very nearly representing
the total population of the globe at the
present day.
Thus, in the last 5000 years, in the wars
of the Pharoahs, in the Monaghan ard
Chinese invasions. and the conauests of
Alexander, ETC., etc, as many human be-
ings as now inhabit the globe have been
slain honorably and officially, very often
while singing cantices to their gods or
drawing strains of joyful music from their
instruments.
Twelve hunnred millions! What is this
number?
1t is day and the sun sheds its light and
heat upon the world. The country is
green, the cities full Of life and the villages
surrounded with iaborers. Millions of
men are living, acting and producing.
Science IS developing its splendors for the
contemplation OF intelligence. history
and romance picture the different
groups that people the world, in
dustry transforms the face of
nature, mountains are lowered, valleys
elevated, seas recede, the equator and the
pole join hands, steam anniniiates time.
rules the seas and burrows continents:
electricity causes Europe and America to
palpitate with common life; the hus-
band leads his bride to receive his grand
mothers benedictlon, the child PLAYS in
the sun; life rfnfolds Its Joyous and divine
radiance on the surface of the globe
But behold the sun gone to rest: behold
black night and melancholy silence
Funeral Death descends from soubre
heights, holding in has hand a scythe of
steel. he passes like a bird of night
whose flight makes one shudder. extends
his hand to the four cardinal points,
trayerses shadowy space and disappears in
the depths; this gesture has arrested hu-
manity IN Its course; this passage of the
necrophore has sent all human he
lngs TO their last sleep: tomorrow morn
ing none OF Us will waken; the sun will
shine upon land of the dead. Not a
single human being remains TO look upoo
the scene. Paris, London. New York St
Petersburg. Vienna, Rerlin and Rome are