Firearms in improved forms for the infantry gradually came into general use, but fordefen sive purposes more than halt of the infantry were still armed with the pike to keep off the cavalry, the firearm as yet not having the bayonet. In 1638. at Wittenweiler, the musketeers of the Duke of Weimar were able to fire only seven times between noon and S P.M. The further u_se of firearms led to the gradual reduction of armor and depth of formations of the infantry. :More radical changes were, however, made dur ing the seventeenth century (1630) by Gus tavus Adolphus, King of Sweden. Perhaps the !mist vital instituted arose from greatly improved discipline and the improvement in the equipments, which aimed to lessen the weight of the musket and increase the effectiveness of the infantry. The use of cartridges enabled a soldier to fire at least twice as rapidly as was possible when powder. primer, and bullets were carried in Arparate pouches. Gustavus Adolphus emitinind the heavy phalanx formation with sonic modification, his infantry forming six ranks deep, and when under fire deployed to form t ree ranks, following the old Roman method of the second line replacing the losses of the first line: the infantry were in lino for mations, subdivisions certain distances apart. The musketeers micarly three-fourths of Gustavus Adolphus's infantry. The Swedish order of battle was thus formed on the memorable field of Liitzen (1(332). The Germans, in this battle, adhered to the heavy and deep phalanx formation. tinder Charles II. (1660-85) the foot regiments were armed either with pikes or match loeks or fireloeks, and each soldier also earried a sword; they were later equipped with the hand grenade, whence the name 'Grenadier Guards,' the equipment being modernized while the name has been retained.
Few tactical changes followed the death of Gustavus Adolphus. until Frederick the Great
(1740-86) revived interest both ill arms and organization by many reforms and corrections of military errors. The infantry, his main strength and dependence, was formed in three ranks, en abling every man to fire. The army was ar ranged in tmla lines, omitting, hOwevcr, all skir mishers and reserves. The limited range of their firearms brought the troops into closer personal contact than occurs nowadays. The victories of Frederick the Great in the War of the Aus trian Succession ( ) and the Seven Years' War (1756-63) placed Prussia among the military powers of Europe. The heavy for mations so long continued, now gave way as cannon were brought into use and great masses of artillery concentrated to crush the enemy. The column formation, practically the same thing except that the lines were composed of two or three files. with lessened front and greater num ber of lines, continued down to very recent years; a-nd to-day the formation in muss, either line or column, has been abandoned for the extended order system.
Infantry constitutes the principal tactical and administrative body of the army and the basic foundation for the proportion of all other arms. and it can be more rapidly trained and mobilized than either cavalry or artillery. It is in the infantry that the principle of expansion finds its widest application. in determining the organiza tion of the line of the army it is given the great est preponderance. In the armies of Great Britain the proportion is: infantry, 141.602; all other arms, cavalry, artillery, engineers. etc.. 87,000; and in the Indian Army—infantry, 109, all other arms, 23.000. The proportion ate Joss of the several important arms of the service during the Franco-Prussian War was given, for the German Army, as: infantry, 17.6 per cent.; cavalry, 6.3 per cent.; artillery, G.5 per cent.