INFANTICIDE. 008 INFANTRY. laws or customs forbid its practice, is due to spe- liiil iihiioriMiil cause-.. ;!•. I'xtrniio dcslitiitidii. in- Banity, abnormal aiitipatliy to the child, fear of disgrace, etc. The usual cause auiuii^' iiiodeni civilized nations is the desire on the part of the mother to escape the shame of illicit childbcar- in;;, or to eseajje the bunli'n of carinji; for an il- lejjitiniate child. (See Illegitimacy.) In some cases, as in Krancc, laws have been passed which aid the niollu-r in supporting,' her ille^'itimate child without exposure or undue l>urden: and these laws are said to have reduced the propor- tionate lunnber iif infanticides, but to have in- creased the number of cases of illegitimacy. The laws of all modern civilized nations treat infanticide as a crime, but they vary too greatly to admit of being specifically stated here. Some of them treat it as a special crime of less grav- ity than murder, restricting infanticide to the killing of an infant which is newly born (within the time limited by the law) ; and others make no distinction between infanticide and murder, the question as to when th4' infant was born l>e- ing immaterial. The latter is the case at the common law of Kngland and the United States, where the unlawful killing of a fully horn child (see BiBTii) is murder, as distinguished from the killing of an unborn child, which is al)orti<>n. See . oUTlo.. Consult, for the full discussion of the law as to infanticide and much of the general history, the works referred to under Medical Juris- I'RIHENCE, such as' Taylor, I'rinciplrs niitl I'lac- lice of Medical Jurisprudence (3d ed,, Phila- delphia, 1883) ; Manual of Medical Jurisprudence (12th Anier. ed.. Philadelphia, 1897); Wharton and Stille, Mnlicul .1 iiiiKjirudnicr ( 4th .rnei. ed., Philadelphia, 1884). For the other aspects of infanticide, consult : l.ubbock. I'n historic Tiinr (5th ed., T-ondon, 1889) ; The Origin of Civil- ization, and the I'rimitive Condition of Man (3d ed., London, 1874) ; Lecky, .1 Uixtory of Eu- ropean Morals (3d ed., London, 1877); Wester- marck. The Uistonj of Marriage (New York, 1891); McLennan, Studies in Ancient History, dr. (London. |.S7lil ; and. for the history of the subject in India, consult Browne, Infanticide: Us Origin. Progress, and Suppression (London, 1857). " INFANT PHENOMENON, Tiik. XimttM Crummies, a character in Dickens's yiclwlas Xicklebii, the daughter of Vincent Crummies, the theatrical manager. INFANTRY ( Kr. infanterie. from Sp. iiifan- leria. from infante, young person, foot-soldier, from Lat. infans. infant, from in-, not + fari. (!k. <t>rivai, phi'iiai, to speak, Skt. bhi'i. to shine). A term applied to an organized body of men, trained for rapid c>V(dutions. ami to fiulit always on foot. It thus stands in contradistinction to the cavalry, which is primarily for mounted service in charges on the field of action and in covering the flanks of an army, or as a screen or curtain to conceal movements, and as a corps of observation : the cavalry is also, especially in the United States service, required at times to ojierate dismounted. In fetidal times the lords were considered 'the chivalrj'.' at least by them- selves, and they ceased to regard the infantry, which was composed of the poorer people, badly equipped and armed, in the same high esteem accorded to it in the earlier wars. Nevertheless the English infantry armed with the longbow was recognized as a dangerous antagonist, and the crossbow, though inferior in accuracy and quickness, was not to be despised. As regards other weapons, the spear-hcads of the Crusaders were barliid and so «ere tile arrows used at Cr<'c.v and elsewhere, the object being to make it impossible to extract them without laceration of the llesh. The sarbacani', a long, hollow tube, was in use for shoooting poisoned arrows at the enemy. The spears were of diverse forma, known as glaives, rocones, partisans, cisarmes, spon- toons, and halberds, all of which were in use by the infantry. With such weapons and equippeil with pilos or helmet, manti'au d'armes, a shoiil der-protector, cuirass, loinguard. spear, war ham- mer and sword, bucklir or rondache (shield), moliility of action was not possible. The armies of the ancient (ireeks were com- posed of infantry, and in the Roman armies cavalry played but a very subordinate part. It was not till the time of the feuilal system that cavalrv became the more important force. The decay of feudalism afTected the cavalry as the principal fighting force in armies. The victories by the foot-soldiers of the liberty-loving Swiss mountaineers over (he .ustrians at Morgarten (1315), Sempach ( 138(1) , and Niifels (1.388) in- creased the esteem in which foot-siddiers were generally held, and, as will be shown further on, centuries have established the fact that this arm of the service is the most essential and most im- portant factor in war. The Grecian order of battle, termed the pha- lanx, was eight to sixteen ranks in depth, either forming a triangular-shaped wedge, with the apex to the enemy, or a solid rectangle arranged in subdivisions, each equivalent to a company of 120 men. with distances between them equal to their front. The advantage of this massive formation was found in weight of impact as an attacking force, irresistible from its momentum and in its great resisting power in defense. The Romans first encountered the famous phalanx when defeated by Pj-rrhus at the battle of Ilcra- clea (B.C. 280). The phalanx, as a whole, often cominised 10.000 to 20,000 men when in order of battle. These masses were not easily handled, and were practically without mobility, unable to work over rough ground or execute changes of front, or -flanking manoeuvres with necessary rapidity of action. The Greek infantryman was equipped with shield, helnu't, breastplate, and greaves (metal leggings), sword, battle-axe. and barbed spears or javelins which were hurled with great force in close fighting. The bow and arrow were used in skirmishing well in advance of the main boily. and before the conflict reached the stage of tie' hand-to-hand combat. The great strength of the Roman legion, numbering 4500 men, was prin cipally in the infantry. It was divided into 1200 hastati (spearmen). 1200 prinriprs (veterans). 1200 vrlites (skirmishers), fiOO pilnni (veteran reserves), and a small cavalry contingent num- bering 300 cquites. Later the customary forma- tion of the phalanx was somewhat improved by line or IcL'ionarv formations in three lines, but still retaining the great depth of ten men. This plan made possible extension of lines and out- flanking the enemy's front or rapid massive for-
