The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-24
The M odem War Bullet.

| While military skill has een applied
since our last war TO make battle more
cruel, surgical skill has been applied to
make IL moro humane Thus we have
two forces working against each other
! These facts must impress every one who
visits the great Army Medical Museum
| AT Washington. New exhibits are con-
| stantly being added TO this interesting in
stitution. Their function is to illustrate
| the evolution and development of military
surgery in the world at large.
! The most interesting of the newly re-
| ceiVed specimens shows the exact effect
which the Krag-Jorgensen rife. lately
| adopted into the army, would have upon
a Spanish Uranium. This wreck of a
mans skull represents the first fatal eff
fects OF the new army small arm upon
! living human subject. a visitor was
permitted TO examine the specimen, and
counted almost twenty pieces into which
| the skull had been broken by the long.
! pencil shaped projectile. Had the head
been exploded from the inside by shell
a more complete destruction would not
have been wrought. The victim was mil
itary convict, who was making his es-
cape from one of the sentinels at Fort
Sheridan when shot. The range was
ninety feet, but after passing through the
mans skull the projectile penetrated a
tree eight inches in diameter and after
ward buried itself in the ground two
| feet.
Another specimen showing the effect of
the new rifle upon the human subject is
the bone from the leg Of a man accident
ally shot at a range of only five feet
From this short distance the projectile
passed completely through thick end
of the bone, leaving clean, round hole,
which afterward healed.
After a few months, the Inflated victim
fell, fractured his skull and died The
wounded leg was amputated and sent to
the Office of the surgeon general. These
two contrasting specimens would indicate
that the deadly effects of the new rifle
increase beyond a very short distance.
Before reaching line of enemy drawn up
at the usual range the bullet assumes a
lateral motion, which. since the steel COW
cred lead is long and thin, tears things to
pieces within a wide radius. Inside of
human head it stirs up the semi-liquid
matter and produces a perfect explosive
effect.
A war in Cuba between our army and
the Spanish army would be the first great
military contest in which modern small
arms were used on both sides. In the re-
cent Gillian war the small calibre rife
was used on both sides, but the struggle
was not sufficiently great to teach ord
nance experts a lesson.
The Spanish infantry is supposed TO be
armed with a modern rife with calbre
of .276, while the calibre of the Krag
Jorgensen is 80. There is very little diff
ference, therefore, in this respectfully
a millimetre. Should General Miles adopt
for the remainder of our army not yet
supplies with Krag-Jorgensen the
straight pull small arm now used in
our navy, we would have rifles of still
less calibre than those of the Spanish in
fantry, that of the straight pull rife
being .236.
Wounds in a long war with Spain would
be proportionately greater in number
than in any other war in history. The
modern small calibre rifles discharge ten
times as many bullets in a given time
as the old ones, and the combatants will
be under effective fires over ranges of
three quarters of a mile.
The new rife will penetrate a mans
skull at a range of almost a half mile.
The bony walls of the chest will not es-
cape penetration even then. The soft
leaden bullets of the old rife would not
fracture the skull at 800 yards or even
less.
Death from bleeding upon the field
Will PROBABLY Do more common III Inc
next great war with modern small arms.
The new bullet is found to produce that
kind of an opening in blood vessel which
would be least capable of being closed
by nature. II is estimated that In such
war the number Of killed will not be
far behind that of the wounded up to 600
yards. At a range of more than !, 100 yards
there will be more wounded than killed.
The wounded, having once been safely
transported TO the hospital. the chances
there for recovery will be many hundreds
of per cent better than during any of our
wars, so far as surgical skill is concerned
Antiseptic surgery has developed since
the civil war. AS far as we are concern
ed, our medical service. both of the army
and navy, is of the best. 1t will be a
small matter to put it on a war footing
with days notice.