Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/764

 754 CAPISTRANUS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT are so atrandant that the interspaces between the vessels are hardly so extensive, when taken together, as the capillaries themselves. This frequent intercommunication and inosculation of the capillary vessels is their most important characteristic as distinguished from the arte- ries and the veins. For while the arteries con- stantly divide and separate from each other so as to convey the blood to separate organs, and the veins unite into larger branches and trunks in order to collect the blood from the different organs and return it to the heart, the capilla- ries, on the other hand, are so arranged as to disseminate the blood in a multitude of minute streams through the substance of an organ, and thus to bring it into intimate contact with its tissue. This form of the capillary plexus va- ries in different parts. In the cellular tissue the meshes are irregular in shape ; in the muscles they are oblong, in the papillre of the skin and tongue they are arranged in loops, in the Mal- pighian bodies of the kidney they form con- voluted globular tufts, and in the glandular or- gans they surround the secreting follicles with a vascular network. In all cases the capillary vessels receive their blood from the arteries and deliver it into the veins. The only apparent exception to this is in the capillary plexus of the liver, which is supplied with blood in great part from the portal vein, which has already collected it from the capillary system of the stomach and intestines. The liver, however, is also supplied with blood by the hepatic artery, and even the blood of the portal vein, though immediately derived from the capillaries of the alimentary canal, was yet first transmitted from the arteries of these organs. CAPISTRAMiS, Johannes, an Italian monk, born at Oapistrano, in the Abruzzi, June 24, 1386, died near Belgrade, Oct. 23, 1456. Having acquired distinction as a jurisconsult, he was employed in the service of the king of Sicily ; but his wife dying, he gave away all his prop- erty, entered npon an ecclesiastical life as a disciple of St. Bernardin of Siena, and became one of the most eloquent preachers of his time. He was for about six years vicar general of the order of Observants, employed by succes- sive popes against heretical sects, and acted as nuncio in Sicily and at the council of Flor- ence for the reunion of the Latin and Greek churches. At the request of the emperor Frederick III. he was sent by the pope in 1451 on a preaching crusade against the Hus- sites ; and though he spoke in Latin, an inter- preter conveying his meaning in German, im- mense crowds listened to him. In 1453 he went to Breslau, where he established a con- vent, and exerted great religious influence. In the other cities of Germany his visits became likewise the signal for great excitement, and King Casimir IV. invited him to preach in Po- land. He instituted cruel persecutions of the Jews in Silesia and Poland. But his most marked achievement was the crusade against the Turks. Having failed to secure the sup- port of the imperial diet and of the German princes, he appealed to the people, and suc- ceeded in enlisting 40,000 men, of whom Pope Oalixtus III. made him chief. He effected a junction with Hunyady, and aided him in dri- ving the Turks from Belgrade, in July, 1456 ; he was foremost in the fight with the cross in his hand, and died soon after from a fever con- tracted on the battle field. His toinb became a resort of pilgrims, and he was regarded as a saint who had worked miracles. He was beatified in 1690, and canonized in 1724, his anniversary being Oct. 23. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (Lat. caput, head, the source of life ; hence capitalis, anything affect- ing life, as crimcn capitate, capital crime; pama capitalis, capital punishment), in modern law, the punishment of death. A capital offence by the Roman law imported only a loss of civil rights (amissio cititatis). In the primitive state of social organization, at least in the ear- liest condition of which we have any record, retaliation was the common method of punish- ing offences, and this was inflicted by the in- dividual suffering the injury, or by his friends when the injury was loss of life. The right of individual revenge has not only existed in the savage state, but has been recognized, and to some extent tolerated, even after laws have been enacted for the restraint of crime ; and in the laws of many nations, retaliation, that is, the infliction of the same injury upon the of- fender which he had committed, was allowed. Moses prescribed, as the measure of punishment for corporal injuries, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and life for life (Exod. xxi. ; Levit. xxiv.) ; and it would seem, in the latter case, that any person belonging to the family of the person whose life had been taken could pursue the murderer and slay him. " The avenger of blood " was a person having such right of pri- vate vengeance, and not a public officer ap- pointed for that purpose. The only means of escape from this mode of retribution was by fleeing to certain cities of refuge, and this was available only in cases of what we should call excusable homicide. The offences designated by the laws of different nations as punishable by death are illustrative of the degree and peculiar form of civilization. The Hebrew polity being theocratic, many offences were punished capitally as being violations of the national faith, such as desecration of the sab- bath, blasphemy, idolatry, witchcraft, cursing, offering children to Moloch, and disobedience to parents. Murder, adultery, incest, kid- napping a free person and selling him for a slave, and some other offences, were also capi- tal. The Athenian code of laws established by Draco prescribed the punishment of death for a large number of offences, greatly differing in degrees of criminality, which the lawgiver extenuated by saying that the smallest of the crimes specified deserved death, and there was no greater penalty which he could inflict for more heinous offences. This severity was