ABSTRACT
You, in 1880, could not fail to have noted the extraordinary development in the manner and the means of warfare during the half-century previous. Since the first use of gunpowder as a destructive agent, a great advance had been made in devising new engines of slaughter and defence. The original match-lock guns gave way to the flint-locks, and these again to the percussion; smooth-bores were 37discarded for rifles, and muzzle for breach loaders. Then great study was made and improvement effected in projectile force and frequency, while you were obtaining more and more knowledge of explosives: nitro-glycerine, dynamite, pyroxylin, the nitrides, and the deadly fulminates. So, every great war that had taken place since the commencement of the century had witnessed some new progressive departure from the old machines of conflict.
