There is a story going about and attracting some attention,
which looks to us very like an invention. M. Charles Bernard has, it is said, invented a " light coat" which musket balls will not pierce. Ile wore it at the Tir National in Belgium, and allowed himself to be shot at with a cavalry carbine loaded with a conical ballet. The shot hit him, M. Bernard staggered, but did not fall, picked up the flattened bullet, and threw it to the marksman, refusing, however, to let him examine the coat, for which he intends to take out a patent. No substance lighter than metal is at present known which will resist a bullet, and proof is required that M. Bernard's " light coat" is not lined with chain mail. If the story is true, the batting will have made another great advance on the bowling, and somebody will have to invent a gun of seven pounds' weight, carrying say an ounce balL That is possible, and a very nice expense it will be. It really seems as if the human race were. destined to toil for the next few years solely to earn the means of killing easily.
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