FIG. 27.

French army rifles. The projectiles of the Chassepôt rifle of the French army, like that of the needle-gun of the Prussian army, are of historical interest from having attracted so much attention in this country during the Franco-German war, and from SO many professional observations on the. wounds inflicted by them having been. published. A short account of them, although they are no longer in use, will accordingly be useful for refe

rence.

The Chassepôt rifle had a calibre of 0-433 inch. The bullet was cylindroconoidal, with a spherical apex; was one inch in length, and nearly half an inch in its greatest breadth (463). It was solid, made of lead, and its weight was 385 grains.26 The base of the bullet was a little larger than the calibre of the rifle, so that it might be forced to take the grooves of the rifling. The charge of gunpowder was 85 grains. The initial Chassepôt Bullet and Cartridge. velocity of the bullet was 1.476 feet in a

second. The rifle was sighted for 1000 metres-about 1094 yards.

After the war the Chassepôt rifle was rendered obsolete, and in 1874 it was settled to have a rifle of about the same calibre, but differing in various mechanical details. Subsequently the magazine system of supply was adopted. The new rifle was known in the French army by the name of the Gras rifle, from its system of construction having been proposed by Major Gras, of the French artillery. The calibre of the rifle was 11 mm. (429 inch). The bullet was hardened by compression of the lead; its weight was not changed. Another rifle, the Kropatschek, was in use in the French navy and also in some branches of the land forces. After a time neither of these weapons was regarded as sufficiently satisfactory, and in 1886 a rifle of smaller bore, the Lebel, of 8 mm. calibre (315 inch) was issued. It is stated that the breech mechanism of the Lebel rifle and arrangements of the magazine are likely to be changed in accordance with the system adopted in a rifle called the Berthier' rifle.

The calibre of the Berthier rifle is 301 inch, the diameter at the bottom of the opposite grooves of the rifling being 313 inch, and the rifling one turn in 9 inches. The bullets are made of hardened lead covered by an envelope of maillechort. The diameter of the bullet is slightly greater than the bore of the rifle, viz., 308 inch; its length is 1.142 inch, and its weight 205 grains.

It is fired by a charge of 33 grains of smokeless powder, and with this charge the muzzle velocity is stated to be 2071 feet per second. The weapon admits of single shots being fired deliberately, or of rapid firing by means of the magazine supplies. Each magazine contains four cartridges placed together in a kind of packet. One of the special features of the rifle is the simple manner in which the magazine, when emptied, falls down automatically, and admits of being replaced by a full one. The separate magazines, or packets, are carried in a bandolier; and thus supplied, a soldier is said to be able easily to fire off seven magazines, or 28 shots, per minute, in case of need.

German army rifles. The celebrated Prussian needle-gun was invented as far back as 1836, by Herr von Dreyse. Four years later, orders were given to supply the light regiments of the Prussian infantry with it, and this was the first breech-loading fire-arm employed in any army. This was the weapon used by the Prussians in the Danish war of 1864, in the war with Austria in 1866, and in the war with France in 1870-71.

The chief peculiarity of the needle-gun was the manner in which the bullet was supported within the barrel, and in which the rotation resulting from the rifling was impressed upon it. The bullet was held at its base in a zündspiegel-a papier-maché receptacle, or sabot, formed on the outside to fit the bore of the rifle, and adapted within for receiving the bullet, like an acorn in its cup. The zündspiegel also contained, in a central position at its base, the detonating composition. The charge of gunpowder was contained in a small paper bag behind it. When the trigger was pulled in firing, the steel needle was driven through the powder in the cartridge, into the detonating composition above, there being a central hole in the base of the papier-maché cup for the purpose. The gunpowder was thus set fire to in front, and the evolved gas, acting upon the papier-maché cup, which was rather larger than the bore of the gun, forced it into the grooves of the rifle, and caused it to rotate, together with the bullet, which it carried along with it. As soon as the cup and bullet were out of the muzzle of the weapon, the bullet left the cup, and flew alone to its mark. From this description it may be understood that occasionally, when the rifle was fired very near a man, there was a risk of the zündspiegel entering his body as well as the bullet, an accident which Professor Gurlt, of Berlin, stated in his description of the projectiles used by the opposing armies in the Danish war of 1864 he had himself seen happen. 27

The bullet of the needle-gun was ovoid in form, and slightly over 1 inch in length (1.08). When this rifle was first introduced, the bullet was 15:43 millimetres in its greatest width (609 inch), but being found too heavy and deficient in speed, its breadth was reduced to 136 millimetres (or 535 inch). Its

FIG. 28.

00

weight was then 478 grains. These were the conditions in respect to size and weight of the bullet as it was used in the Danish war of 1864, and in the Bohemian war of 1866. Subsequently the weight was reduced from 478 to 324 grains, and the width to 485 inch. The charge of powder remained 75 grains. The diminution in size of the bullet did not render any change in the firearm itself necessary; the small projectile could still be fired out of the wide barrel by merely giving a proportionate amount of enlargement to the papier-maché cup in which it was carried. The elongated oval. form of this bullet caused it to be very easily deflected on coming into contact with the rounded bones of the extremities, or other strong tissues presenting a convex outline,

at all distances at which its initial Needle-Gun Bullet and Cartridge. force had become considerably di

minished. The chief military disadvantages of the weapon were its unnecessary weight, and its inferiority in range to some other rifles.

After the war was over, the Germans, in 1871, adopted a breech-loading rifle, known, after the name of its inventor, as the Mauser rifle. It had a calibre of 11 mm. (429 inch); its bullet was made of lead hardened by the addition of 15 per cent. of tin and 15 per cent. of antimony; its weight was 25 grammes (385 grains); the charge of powder, 5 grammes (77 grains); and its muzzle velocity was stated to be 1427 foot-seconds. This rifle was subsequently converted into a magazine arm, Germany being the first of the European Powers to adopt the magazine system. The conversion was not regarded as sufficiently successful, and about 1884 it was settled that a new rifle of smaller calibre should be substituted for it. This became the Mauser pattern of 1888, with a calibre of 7.9 mm. (312 inch). The bullet was made of hardened lead as before, but it was covered by an envelope of steel, plated with nickel. At the same time a new chemical semi-smokeless explosive was introduced for use instead of the old gunpowder, the charge being about 40 grains. This chemical powder gives to the bullet a muzzle velocity of about 2050 foot-seconds. It will be observed that the calibre, hardness, weight, and initial velocity of the German rifle projectile closely agree with the corresponding qualities in the French Lebel rifle.

Austrian army rifle.-The Austrian magazine rifle, the Mann

licher, with which the Austrian infantry were armed in 1888-90, has attracted much attention, from having been the first small-bore rifle which has been actually used in war. One of the contending parties in the late civil war in Chili was largely armed with this weapon. The bullet used with it is steel-covered, and, like the existing North German pattern, is very similar in diameter, weight, length, volume, and muzzle velocity to the French Lebel rifle projectile. The chief differences are in the breech and magazine mechanical arrangements. The published reports respecting the effects of the Mannlicher rifle in the Chilian war have been very contradictory. While, on the one hand, according to Surgeon-General von Bardeleben, Colonel Boonen-Rivera, who held the post of Brigade-Commander, in reporting on the war, has stated that the number of dead on the battle-field, by his own observation, was four times larger than that of the wounded, Captain v. Heyking, of the German School of Musketry, mentioned in a lecture at Spandau (May 1892) that the reverse was really the case. He quoted another report in which the small proportion of men wounded mortally was remarked upon, and he added that 'the wounds by the Mannlicher are such as either to kill a man outright, or to ensure recovery free from complications or excessive suffering. The bones were clean pierced, even at the greatest distances, without leaving splinters of steel or lead, and the bullets after extraction had retained their original shape.'

The leading features of the magazine rifles of some other foreign armies will be found in the table already furnished on p. 51.

Review of the general effects of the successive changes in military portable fire-arms and their projectiles on wounds inflicted in warfare.

The early kinds of portable fire-arms, or hand-guns, owing to their very primitive construction and mode of discharge, were probably hardly so destructive as the cross-bows in use at that period; although from their novelty, together with the flame and loud report which accompanied their discharge, the consternation they caused was doubtless far greater. Military cross-bows are recorded to have been capable of killing a man up to 60 yards at point-blank range, and up to 160 yards when duly elevated. The heavy, cumbrous hand-gun, with its wide and uneven bore, illfitting projectile, and ill-made powder, could scarcely have been used with such precision and deadly effect. The improvements subsequently made in the construction of the weapons, as well as in the quality of the gunpowder, gradually led to higher initial velocity, increased force, and a more extended range in the missiles discharged from them. The later improvements in smooth-bore fire-arms do not seem to have changed the severity

of the wounds produced by them so much as they did the power of inflicting severe wounds over a still wider area; but the number of wounds resulting from discharges of shot became greater, and the relative proportions of these wounds in respect to different degrees of gravity were altered. In very early times, after some of the leading imperfections of the primitive handguns and muskets had been removed, if a soldier happened to be wounded at very short range, the wound might be as severe as one by the most improved weapon in use prior to the introduction of rifled muskets. But such severe wounds were only, as a rule, met with in accidental collisions; the greater number of wounds in early battles seem to have been inflicted at distances beyond the range at which such extreme effects could be produced. A large proportion of them were therefore of a comparatively slight nature; for the projectiles in use quickly lost their velocity on account of their imperfect shapes and other defects, and, on striking, were able to do little more than glance from the armour which was worn for many years after fire-arms were introduced, or just to wound the surface when they penetrated the body. Hence, doubtless, the large number of recoveries reported in early surgical works on gunshot wounds, especially of recoveries after injuries of the trunk and head. The introduction of rifled weapons led to results similar to those which followed improvements in smooth-bore fire-arms, but in a far greater ratio. The sustained energy of projectiles discharged from rifles, not interfered with by expansion of the fire-arms from heat, or by the other disturbing influences which quickly lessened the energy of bullets projected from smooth-bore muskets, gave to combatants a vastly extended range over which a powerful fire could be maintained, and to military surgeons a proportionally increased number of severe wounds to treat.

The different effects produced by the smooth-bore weapons used by British troops, even down to the first half of the present century, when compared with those resulting from the improved rifles of later days, have been illustrated in comparatively recent campaigns in which British forces have been employed against tribes in a half-civilised condition. In the war on the Gold Coast the rifle was used, on one side, against very imperfect smooth-bores, and badly made projectiles on the other. In the New Zealand war the relative condition of the opposing troops, so far as their fire-arms were concerned, was nearly the same as on the Gold Coast. So also in the Caffre war and in the China wars of 1857 and 1860. In the wars on the Gold Coast and in New Zealand, when the Ashantis or Maoris managed to creep by stealth through the bush, so as to be enabled to discharge their muskets at very close range, the wounds inflicted were sometimes of the severest kind, and in particular cases fatal; but the majority of the