The weekly Arizona miner., 1870-10-08
Ihe >> aliner.
Chances in Battle.

In the days of the old fashioned musket. or " Brown Bess,n as 1t was popularly nick named, the chances of mans being Int by bullet were slight. It has been estimated that in Wellington's campaign in Spain It took 500 bullets to kill one man, but much ot this waste of powder was due to the careless ness and ignorance on the part of the men; some fired SO high that the ball went over the heads of the enemy, others so low that they went into the ground. Even in our recent war, with greatly improved firearms, the number of killed and wounded was very small compared with the immense number of shots fired.
 Mir Francis Galton in his recent work on hereditary genius, presents some curious cal culations as to a mans chance of being struck by bullets in a battle One man differs from another in height and in width, therefore, the chance of the one as compared with that of the other varies as the sectional area of his body that Is to say, as his height multiplied into his average breadth. But this is not the whole truth, and MT. Dalton admits; for large men are more likely to be hit not merely on account of the greater area of their bodies, but also on account of their being more con spicuous from their size, and, therefore being more likely to be singled out as a mark. Tue principle of "natural selection,' on the part of the enemy's bullets, here comes into opera tion, and Mir. Galton endeavors to correct his estimate of chances by taking the weight of the man into account lt is not easy Co per ceive the force of his mode of reasoning, hnt the result of it is, that the chance of a mans being accidentally shot in the battle is as the square root of the product of his height mul- tipled into weight Thus, supposing man to be 225 pounds in weight, and five feet six inches high, he will escape from chance shots for only two years. while man of l l2 pounds weight, and five feet six inches high, would escape for three. The total relative chances against being shot in battle of two men of these respective heights and weights are as three to one in favor of the smaller man, in respect to accidental shots, and in a decided ly more favorable proportion in respect tC direct aim, the latter chance being compoun ded of the two following: First, better hop, oi not being aimed at, and, secondly, hope very little less than three to two, of not bein; hit when made the object of an aim.
 Had Nelson been large man, instead of mere feather weight, it is probable that b, would not have survived so long the extra ordinary dangers he encountered. In th, course of five years he took part in hundred and twenty actions at sea, including tn, battles of Cape St. Vincent and the Nile, anC in them he lost an arm and an eye. He wa ultimately killed at Tranfagar (after escaping death at Copenhagen by one of many shot aimed directly at him by a rifeman in tn, maintop of French ship with which his owI was closely engaged; but it should at tn, same time be added that, on this occasion b, greatly increased the chances against him. b, pacing the quarter deck in full uniform. witt all his medals and orders fastened on hi breast When the famous Marshal Soul visited England, story appeared in the news paper to the effect that some English veteran had declared the hero must bear a charmed life for that he (the sodier) had covered hin with his rifle upwards of thirty times, and ye never hit him. It is, not at all surprising tha the uneducated believe some men to bea charmed lives, when we remember Napoleon at the bridge of Lodi, and again at Arcols where, it is set down in history, the Austrian artillery swept off everybody but himself, ye he led the way across the bridge unharmed- though the grape rattled in a perfect hail storm round him. The same may he said c Wellington at Waterloo, where it is reported that every man of his staff was either kile, or wounded, and be had for a while 10 d their work until others could be brought u from the other end of the line, he escaping al the while untouched. Many more instance of such exceptions from the havoc going on al around can be found in history, but these ar two remarkable cases, familiar to most people It will be found that the majority of officer of the higher grades survive not only one bu many battles. Mr. Galton estimates thi majority at per cent, but his figures do no bear out his theory. He has selected list c thrty-two of the most eminent commanders but of these only seven died on the batti field, which would make the proportion ' Der cent. The most formidable enemies a army has are camp-feyer, privation, over fatigue, and too great exposure to heat, cold and damp, and the carelesness of the men These kill three times as many as the bulle does; and yet the bullet kills it's thousand. notwithstanding the large chances in favor c the escape of any individual soldier.-Pailq dolphin Reporter.