EDITOR'S TABLE. 



817 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



SCIEyCE IN RELATION TO WAR. 



HOW the art of war, by the pow- 

 erful stimulus it has given to the 

 investigatiou of the properties of pro- 

 jectiles and numerous kindred research- 

 es, has been an efficient promoter of 

 progress in physical science, is well un- 

 derstood. The strife among engineers 

 to construct guns that shall be able to 

 pierce any barrier, and to construct 

 barriers that shall resist all guns, has 

 led to results in improving the quality 

 of metals which could hardly have been 

 gained in any other way. 



It is not, however, this aspect of 

 the science of war that here interests 

 us ; but rather its ethical side, or the 

 excuses that can be offered for it as a 

 part of the policy of Nature. An Eng- 

 lish writer * has recently gone into the 

 subject, and attempted a scientific de- 

 fense of the general and permanent hab- 

 it of war which it is important to no- 

 tice, in order that science may not be 

 perverted to false and injurious ends. 



The writer with whose views we are 

 now concerned points out in an inter- 

 esting manner in what way science has 

 operated to alleviate the hoi-rors of 

 war, to shorten its duration, and tem- 

 per its effects. He remai'ks that in the 

 days of the old smooth-bore, when it 

 was a maxim not to fire till the whites 

 of the opponents' eyes were visible, it 

 was said to take a man's weight in lead 

 and iron to kill him, so many bullets 

 and cannon-balls were fired ineffectual- 

 ly ; but now, owing to the increased 

 distance at which firing takes place 

 and to the general use of earthworks, 

 it is still more difficult to do execution. 

 The statistics given by the writer strong- 

 ly corroborate this view. He says the 

 average number of killed and wounded 



* "The Philosophy of War," by James Ram. 



on both sides in the great Napoleonic 

 battles taken collectively was a little 

 over one fourth of the whole forces en- 

 gaged ; while the average in the great 

 European battles fought within the last 

 thirty years, since the general introduc- 

 tion of arms of precision, gives a little 

 less than one twelfth. We are also re- 

 minded that the more improved moii- 

 ern warfare engenders less hatred be- 

 tween the conflicting parties. " Before 

 the invention of gunpowder, when fight- 

 ing was conducted at comparatively 

 close quarters, soldiers fought with an 

 animosity which is now rarely seen. The 

 man who was to take your life unless you 

 took his, projected himself before you 

 dangerous and hateful, but under the 

 present system wounds seem to come 

 from some impersonal agency ; a man 

 is less vividly impressed with the per- 

 sonality of his foe, who, like the Ethi- 

 opians, is blameless because he is far 

 away, and whose individuality is lost at 

 the distance of a quarter of a mile, 

 where he is taking shots at you from 

 behind a hedge. But in ancient times 

 great bodies of men once interlocked in 

 conflict could not be drawn off till ut- 

 terly exhausted with mutual slaughter, 

 and hence we read of such battles as 

 Cannae, where on the Eoman side alone, 

 according to Polybius, out of 86,000 

 men not much more than 15,000 pris- 

 oners or fugitives came off unhurt ; and 

 Cressy, where there perished of the 

 French on the field or in the pursuit 

 between 30,000 and 40,000 men— bat- 

 tles in which the wounded and disabled 

 experienced in butchery that cruelty to 

 which in brave minds the frenzied fears 

 attending close conflict can alone give 

 rise." 



Our new philosopher of war is quite 

 ready to concede its evils, its calamities, 

 and its horrors — its terrible waste of 



