Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1866-07-27

hands steady in the process of rammins
down while they are themselves unde
fire2 From this point of view, anothe
remark made by our correspondent wit
the Prussian army deserves serious consid
GRAFTON. 1t is not only in rapidity of dis.
charge and in safety Of loading that breech
loading rifles surpass muzzle.loaders, bu
also an The average direction Of GIN. "a
man with musket on the nipple of whicl
he has to place a cap naturally raises III
muzzle in the air, and in the hurry and ex
cltement Of action often forgets to lower II
and only sends his bullet over the heads o
the opposi te ranks, while the soldier arme,
with breech loading musket keers hi,
muzz!e down, and if in haste he fires it Of
without raising the butt to his shoulder hi
shot still takes effect, though often low; an,
proof OF this is that very many of th,
Austrian prisoners arc wounded in tb,
legs The onl y objection, indeed, which
is urged against the breech loading system
for weapons to be used in war is one tha
answers itself It is said that regimenu
would fire away their ammunition so fas
that it would be impossible to keep them
supplied. This is as much as to say thai
soldiers must be exposed to the certainty
of being nowu down by enemies firing ,hre,
| shots to their one because ammunition
might otherwise be wasted, and the mean:
of transport must be increased. 1t might
be sufficient to reply that in the Prussiar
army these obstacles are not found insu-
perable, but where common sense is de-
cisive of a question it seems needless to in.
woke experience.
Without experience, however, no reform
involving considerable expense is likely to
find favor with heads of departments in
this country. 1t is on this ground that we
have invited attention to the experiments
which have lately been tried on the arges,
scale in real warfare, and we now most
earnestly represent the urgent necessity OF
profiling by them. It was hu, last month
l:at Marshal Benede1 encouraged his
troops to despise the alleged superiority Of
Pruss,;an firearms, and to rely on the bay
onet, and ,:-e t.lready see the consequences
Every one kno wa that bayonets arc seldom
actually crossel; Sheu they are crossed it
by no means follows ,hst those who carry
the wo'at rifles will give the most vigorous
thrust. and before they are crossed 1t Is
certain that rapidity of fire will tell fatally.
With these facts before us not a day shcutd
be lost in armaing our ow,a infantry acith
breeeh-loaders Of the best arailable pattern.
There is no of6oial in the War Department
who would himself think of using a muz.
zle loader in cover shooting if he hal the
option Of a hreech loader, or who would
Ike to confront with the former an enemy
provided with the latter. Then why delay
to place ths better weapon in the hands of
our army? The smaller the force we
maintain as compared with our neighbors,
and the greater the difficulty we experience
in recruiting is, the more essential it is that
we should forthwith appropriate an i'm.
provemens2 which multlplies it's effective
strength, and makes one man, under Ger
tain circumstances. a match for iwo or
three. Whether the single. breech-Ioader,
or some repeating rifle. like that of Speu-
Ger, adopted in the United States, would on
the whole, be more servjceable, :is q matter
to be discussed By professional eonnois-
seurs. :spencer's rifle is "seven shoot
err" and all seven charges are put in a,
once into q chamber in the stock, bpt as
the bleach must be opened after each sho,
to get rid OF the empty cartridge it is pos.
.sible that. very little time is gained and
some. risk1o arrangement incurred by this
additional complication. Such points may
safely be lef to the judgment of scientific
officers, but the expediency. of substituting
brseoh. leaders for muzzIs leaders 10 ano,h
er affair. Scientific. officers. will never sue
csed, by .themsslyes,.in fofcing tBs, chang,
upon the: authorities, and the only power
/ capable Of. doing 20 is the power Of public
opinion. -. -. :.
onoRs OF DIsEAsE.-The odor ofsmall po,
mas been compared to the smell of a he-
goats mat Of measles to fresh pluckee
goose; scsrlatina to eheese. The smell o o
plague has been compared with the odor o
Asysaoysrs, ead that oftyphus With
COasaok. That the typhus amnonia 81
often been observed, and, ,the bait and mos !,
recent i1vsstiga.ots egre that It il ass:eom.
Epound Of ammonia:,s PsobAbly de s 5n,er. za
Intense the smell ths: more operative s n, 3
poison; heucet tie necessity +op tie !psrt s. 3
attendants to aypid haiing thisconcsntrat