Some nineteen-twentieths of all the wounds received in any modern battle are from infantry rifles, and from the machine guns. England, France, Germany, Austria, the United States, and some other nations, have recently adopted magazine guns for their infantry which can be fired sixty times in a minute, while the Gatling machine gun can throw 1,000 bullets in the same time.
A new powder is used which doubles the velocity of the bullets and is smokeless, and sends the missile over two miles; while the cartridge is less than half the weight of the old one, enabling the soldier to carry more than double the former number of cartridges.
These weapons change the conditions of warfare, so that all open ground can be swept with a storm of bullets, before which men can neither charge nor stand still. The only exception is where the country is rough enough to admit