The account which we receive today from s very trustworthy source of the manner of destruction of the new Freach gun is possibly even more wonderful than the original idea—that it killed by diffusing from the exploded shell some particularly poisonous vapour. At the same time, if men can be stunned by an explosion, there appears no reason why they may not be stunned actually to death. At any rate with the amount of testimony now before us, it seems quite certain that! the French do possess some gun of abnormally destructive power. In regard to the letter yesterday signed ''Incredulous," the writer objects to the statement that Germans were found dead, standing upright, with rifles still to the shoulder. We hold no brief for the original description, the source of which we quoted in republishing it. But a possible explanation is to be found in the fact that the men thus said to have been discovered were in trenches. Would it be impossible for them to be leaning against the front of the trench in the attitude of taking aim, and so supported at all points where the muscles would give, a! to retain the upright position when death took them?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.