THE ART OF KILLING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1279, 16 January 1883, Page 3

THE ART OF KILLING.

' Thei! i _on" possible 4 „in the art of killing. . At present,. >nbt-: \vitl|standing the help.th>t science 'has given to butchery in war,' \vo arc really not'much in advance of our ancestors in tlie Year of One.. They.'carried on war .by. throwing baling each'other with. clubs. • Substantially wedotho'same, Ourstonesdrebigger, and we throw, thein further, but that is all. At present we-can throw a big stone—namely, a 17001b shell, which will burst where it alights, " and. kill every living thing . wit-hiiia-, circuit, of a hundred-feet—we can throw- such a stone a distance of tlirfee miles! f "Tlie; improvement, ,that s science' eii-i courages us to hope for is.that.wo,may' hope to throw bigger stohes still, and throw them further) Possibly we may even become able to ( drop, them from balloons—which would be mighty inconvenient to any one who happened to be below.' When btillooiiing is: perfected, battles will be fought either 'iii the air or underground ; iiobody ivill bo able to on-the surface. .Still, ballobn.watfwe matoiy resolve itself into stone-throwing. Some philantrophists hold #ati.,tin'tili' t wo have, a more scientific,.. expeditious, and comprehensive,mode of killing than this, there is. np'real, hope' for. the ■progress of. tho race.: Suppose an asphyxiating vapour .were' available ; which-.would smother army at;:once, Tho: late : Captain. Wsriierhbev lifeved himself to have intuited such 'a' •vapour '(perhapd. thia also- was-tyrd ,; D(i ndori ald sec cot) Mid tried it. with' entire success upon a' flock- of • sheep. but.it is "the :pec\tl iarity-o f such vapours that they rise. The army to bo suffocated would escape by lying, down." The sheep did not know -this fact, .and. consequently perished. There is no;way at present known of smothering a body of men in .the open air uhless -they can" bo persuaded to stand erect.-during -tlie process. Abandoning hope from that quarter, there, remains: to usthe -possi- 1 bilities of electricity. We may learn to shoot lightning .at .each other—which ought to be more'effective than stone-throwing; or, ' agairij 'we might cenlviv'e to arrange- mirrors " so as to concentrate intolerable heat, heat that would, pulverise-a 'diamond' at a considerable distance." "The tliingcoiild be done,",- "says " the Spectator,':" so eflectualiy'that th'e'veryribs of an.ironship would dissolve into molten .metal but 'not at any ..distance."'; That'is the discouraging faot, "We .ought-to beable to do' it. from' sb' great a distance. that the iron ship to ; be 'operated upon would 'not find it'possible' to derange our apparatus by throwing' 1.800 pound shells at it.. On the wliole; there is no immediate prospect of any improvement in our methods of wholesale'killing, which seems nnich to be The era of -universal pence cannot, arrive, say some theorists,-aintil war is made so deadly,that .it'iwill be wovth nobody's while to fight. On that view tho outlook is gloomy,,.and-.one. would fain hope that' there may be a. " more exceHent'way." What is the good- of having so many religions if they can't keep mankind from reriding^and''tearing each other like'brute beasts 1 1. ''