half-contagious

Updated: August 22, 2026

But the ordinary courage of the battle-field is largely an excitement half-animal, half-contagious, running often into savagery and insensate fury. In that situation the highest and lowest elements in man come into play. For the most part only the highest is portrayed for us by the historians and romancers, they keep the wild beast and the devil out of sight.

George Spring Merriam - The Negro and the Nation: A History of American Slavery and Enfranchisement