Dum-Dum Bullets
a bullet so named after the place near Calcutta where it was first made. It is one which instead of having its greatest strength at the point is weakest there, so that in striking a bone it will flatten out and shatter it, and not, like the modern steelcoated, sharp-pointed bullet, make a small hole and pass through without any other effect. The loading of rifles with two bullets, with jagged bullets, or with bullets mixed with glass or lime has long been forbidden in civilized warfare. At Santiago the Spaniards were charged with cutting off the brass tips of their bullets so that they had the same effect in inflicting jagged wounds as the regular dum-dum bullets. Dum-dum bullets are now used to some extent by big game hunters. The Hague Peace Congress agreed that dum-dum bullets should not be used in war.
The same charge was brought against the British by the Germans in the World War, but was never proven officially.
DUMFRIES (dum-frēs'), a river port, railway center and parliamentary borough, capital of the county of same name, and the chief place in the S. of Scotland; on the left bank of the Nith, about 6 miles from its junction with the Solway Firth. It is connected with the suburb Maxwelltown (in Kirkcudbright) by three bridges, one dating from the 13th century. Pop. about 19,000.