Those
who are killed are by no means a haphazard sample of the whole army.
Among the victims there is a disproportionate representation of those
with (1) dauntless bravery, (2) recklessness, (3) stupidity. These
qualities merge into each other, yet in their extremes they are widely
different. However, as the nature of warfare changes with the increase
of artillery, mines, bombs, and gases, and decrease of personal combat,
those who fall are more and more chance victims.
In addition to the killed and mortally wounded, there are many deaths
from disease or from wounds which were not necessarily fatal. Probably
the most selective of any of these three agencies is the variable
resistance to disease and infection and the widely varying knowledge and
appreciation of the need for hygienic living shown by the individual,
as, for instance, by less reckless drinking of unsterilized water. But
here, too, in modern warfare, this item is becoming less selective, with
the advance in discipline and in organized sanitation.
The efficiency of selection will be affected by the percentage that each
side has sent to the front, if the combatants are either above or below
the average of the population. A nation that sends all its able-bodied
males forward will be affected differently from its enemy that has
needed to call upon only one-half of its able-bodied men in order to win
its cause.
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