The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-12-05
MERCIFUL MODERN RIFLES.

Hospital Statistics from South Africa 1 Gives Some Remarkable Results.
 Among the various confident predic-
 tions which have been falsified by events in South Africa, none have been
 falsifed more completely than those which foretold that the destructive effects of modern weapons of precision would be such as to render future wars impossible, says the London Times.
 Many months will elapse. in all proba-
 blity. before the medical department Of the army will be in position to fur nish complete returns of the Engllsh
 casualties and of their permanent con-
 sequences; while. as far as the Boers
 are concerned, there is no Ii likelihood
 that such returns will ever be furnished
 at all, or that any materials from which
 they could be framed will be available.
 Even, now, however, the principal ct-
 vi1ian surgeons who have returned from
 the scene of action have communicated
 enough of their experience to medical
 journals and medical societies to justify
 at least two conclusions-namel that
 the actual proportion of wound >i to
 combatants has not been greatly, if al
 all. in excess of that of earlier wars,
 while the severity of the wounds has
 been much less and the percentage of recoveries from them much greater
 than has ever before recorded.
 Tbp n GIlIar colonization in Ihh
 days of Brown Bess and sDherical bull kill a man; and it does not appear that this calculation would be very wide of the mark in the present day. There were a few positions in which our mon came within short range Of concealed enemies, and in which, no doubt, larg portion of those engaged were hit but even then, the casualties were less nu- merour than might have been expected The enemy, in such positions, whatever may have been the skill of individuals among them as marksmen did not, generally speaking, fire with sufficient deliberation to attain any high stand ard of accuracy. In the words of King lake, there was time to learn that the d Of passing shot; and that, amid notes sounding like a verry torrent ol balls, the greater part of even a crowded force may remain unhurt Sir William speaking of the results of shell fire, quotes the German Boar ar tillery cOmmandant, Albrecht, to the effect that for every thousand shells we fired at Colenso the Boers los- only twelve killed and forty wounded: and adds that at Paardeberg there were 120 guns hurling tons of metal against 1 LOCO Boers, with consequent ca sualties amounting to about one BOar to each | gun. MT. Treves reports that lyddite | had nothing like the elleCt that was lscrbed to it. Several 3oers were produced by lyddite, but recovered | without any sign Of injury and some 1 men of the Kings Royal Rifles, near to | whom lyddite shell exploded, were | 'or a time hindered in their breathing | )y the stench of the fumes but were lot otherwise the worse for tne eype- fence.
 Up to May 12, according to Sir Will jam MacCormac, the English in South | Africa had 10701 officers and men among whom there were 571 | leaths, or 5.34 per cent; while the death ate among 74S wounded officers was
 1-2 per cent. greater than among the nen In the Crimea a British force. which seldom exceeded 25,00O men lost