Mr. Whitworth says his bullet rotates at the rate of 15,000 revolutions in a minute; now the friction on the periphery of a bullet having this extreme spinning on an axis, must very much lessen its range. If we weigh force, and carefully calculate its expenditure in 2,000 yards, the periphery has made 4,000 revolutions. Now look at the shape of the hexagonal body depicted in the woodcut at page 377, and estimate the friction it will undergo. The Enfield in the same distance would rotate only 1,000 times, thus affording another gain of 300 per cent. The question, therefore, which arises is this: If all this can be done equally well with the Enfield, why not do it? And the answer is, because there is nothing to be gained by it. Great doubts now exist whether the bore 25 is not too great a reduction: in fact, you will find no military advocates for it. The faculty will tell you that small wounds are not so destructive as large ones: the human body is as much affected by the shock as by the penetration of a bullet. Many other reasons might be advanced in favour of increased size of bullet, and much more important reasons must be given, before the whole military system has to be re-changed, than a mere gain of 300 or 400 yards; whilst there can be little doubt that the ranges we now possess in the Enfield are more than equivalent to our wants. The human eye cannot define precisely at 900 or 1,000 yards, and yet greater accuracy is required to fire a ball at a distance of 2,000 yards; again, it is a question which has frequently arisen in my mind, in how many situations in England or on the Continent can we get a clear view of 2,000 yards. The effort, indeed, to increase range appears like seeking after a remedy for a disease which has never yet been discovered.