MODERN FIGHTING.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5554, 4 December 1879, Page 3

MODERN FIGHTING.

Some interesting evidence (says the Daily JVews) as to the character of modern fighting is supplied by a recently published volume, the report of the Stafford House Committee on their operations in the late Russo-Turkish War. Besides a " record of operations," the book contains some general reports on surgical matters by the chief surgeons employed. In these there is to be found nearly unanimous testimony, h'rst as to the comparative fewness of wounds from the " white arm," as swords, bayonets, lances and such-like weapons are collectively termed iv French military language. The second point of interest is tho greater ease with which such wounds healed when they were not at once fatal. Sword wounds were more numerous in the latter part of the war than in the earlier, says Mr Barker, and they usually healed easily. Bayonet wounds were much rarer. " Among thousands of wounded men," says Dr. Pinkerton, " I did not see more than half-a-dozen suffering from sabre, lance, or bayonet wcunds." and he adds that the experience of others whom he questioned was the same. " The number of bayonet wounds coming under observation was exceedingly small," says Mr Mackellar, and though sabre wounds were more frequent in this gentleman's experience, they were chiefly due to wanton attacks on non-combatants : not to fair fighting. The fact seems to be that not only is actual hand-to-hand fighting very rare in modern warfare, but that modern weapons are very ill adapted for it. The lanoe requires elbow-room and very adroit management ; the sabre needs very great bodily strength, and not a little skill, to make it effective : the bayonet is " a most clumsy weapon." The bowie-knife and; the short Ghoorka dagger are, thinks Dr. Pinkerton, much more effective than any of our cutting arms. On the other hand, the modern rifle-bullet is allowed to be a terrible weapon in its effects, even where it does not kill, and the wounds it inflicts seem to be much more serious than those of the old spherical ball