Page:Science and War.djvu/19

 honour, chivalry, humanity, respect for the laws of War or what you will—which operate to mitigate the horrors of War.

The history of the last half-century furnishes us with excellent material for appreciating the part which Science has played in this War. Forty-four years elapsed between the outbreak of the first Franco-German War and that of the one which is just concluding. The circumstances of the two were strikingly alike. In both we find Germany choosing its own moment for making a deliberate and long planned attack on France. In both cases it had accumulated a vast Army furnished with abundant provision of all munitions prescribed by the Military Science of the time. In theory if not in fact France was similarly equipped. The tactics of the attacking party were the same in both Wars and the immediate result in each case was a successful invasion of France. Fortunately the parallel between the two Wars goes no further. But the duration of each was sufficient to shew the features of a War waged with all the knowledge and 13