THE LEBEL RIFLE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2003, 3 December 1888, Page 3

THE LEBEL RIFLE

. . » ■. Aocordlng to all accounts (says the Parti Correspondent of the " D«l!y Telegraph "), the new "Label Rifle" le • wondrous weapon, and is destined to do terrible things In the hands of Frenoh soldiers. The members of the Aoademy of Medlo'ne, wishing to diagnose the physical conaequenees of iroands icflloted by the bullets of the gun, recently had experiments made on twenty oorpses, probably those of paupers whom nobody owned, or those of Illfalted waifs picked up at the Morgue Tbe Indies were placed at the ordinary firing distances, from tiro hundred yards up to a mile or so. The ballets whfzzad through the bones and pierced them with* ont fraotnrloß them r as Is done by the ballets of the "Gras RlflV The wounds, if they may be oalled so, whioh were inflicted, were small In their punctures, and consequently very dangerous and dlffioult to heal. In jar lea lufloled at short distances were 10 considerable that, in the opinion of the surgeons, they would be almost Incurable. At the longest range — 2000 metres— ?a poplar tree was hit ; bat the ballet* which Impelled a certain quantity of air before it, did not go through the tree. At 1200 metres tbe tree was pierced through and through. The discharges of the r fie are accompanied by no smoke and tbe reports are comparatively feebla. -