THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
405 
of Russian dead precisely in this condition close to the salient of the 
Redan at the fall of Sebastopol, who no doubt had been mangled by 
common shells burst close to them (a common shell with a time fuze 
occasionally but not frequently acting in this way). Colonel Enderly 
Gordon informs me that at Inkerman a soldier near him was blown into 
the air, and fell such a mass of flesh and blue cloth that he was unable 
to pronounce whether the man was a Turk or a gunner. 
Then comes the question, is it necessary to blow an enemy into flesh 
and rags ? Is it even desirable ? The moral effect is no doubt consider¬ 
able on those who are close to a man so mutilated, and moral effect is 
something; but common sense tells us that each human body so torn 
asunder represents a large share of the power of a shell, and the choice 
consequently seems to lie between killing or wounding perhaps a dozen 
men with bullets, and blowing one or two into .fragments. It will no 
doubt be urged that the number destroyed by the Prussians in the time 
was very great; but to this may be answered that the circumstances 
were exceptional, and when the conditions on active service, as in this 
case, at all approach those of ordinary practice firing, the slaughter 
must always be frightful. The range at Sedan probably varied little 
during the day, the ground was hard, the men were in close formation, 
the fire was converging. We might discharge any kind of projectile 
into masses of men penned up in a corner, with great confidence in 
being able to kill large numbers. 
-j-l PREMATURE 
II 9 *1* 
May I again show you the diagram which represents the fifteen best 
rounds of segment fired at Dartmoor at targets representing a regiment 
in column partly concealed behind the crest of a hill? 1194 hits were 
produced ! At this rate, each field battery would annihilate an entire 
infantry regiment in about a minute and a half; but continue the fire 
at half that rate, and the bare conception of each field battery killing 
or wounding 20,000 men per hour, is enough to show us that it is only 
necessary on service to approach the conditions of practice with segment 
or shrapnel, to cause results such as we may well hope we may never 
see. I suppose we can hardly look forward to a time when we shall 
disable an enemy so skilfully that we come to look on it as an awkward 
mistake when we kill men, but still there seems something savage in 
revelling in the idea of not only disabling men but also blowing them 
into fragments. The natural feeling of dislike to mutilate our fellow- 
creatures may seem to savour more of sentiment than real humanity, 
but still I think humanity is in favour of striking men rapidly with 
shrapnel bullets rather than blowing them to pieces slowly and tediously 
with common shell, especially as in the latter case it is possible that 
the battle may last longer; but at all events, looking at the result as 
