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Marshal Saxe, a high authority in such things, was in the habit of saying, that to kill a man in battle, the man's weight in lead must be expended.
A French medical and surgical gazette, published at Lyons, says this fact was verified at Solferino, even in the recent great improvements in fire-arms.
The Austrians fired 8,400,000 rounds.
The loss of the French and Italians was 2,000 killed and 10,000 wounded. Each man hit cost 700 rounds, and every man killed cost 4,200 rounds.
The mean weight of a ball is one ounce; thus we find that it required, on an average, 272 pounds of lead to kill a man. If any one of our friends should get into a military fight, they should feel great comfort in the fact that 700 shots may be fired at them before they are hit, and 4,200 before they “shuffle off the mortal coil.” --N. Y. Commercial, May 21.
Van Nostrand. New York, New York. 1862.
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