 He successfully advocated the use by cavalry of a straight pointed sword for thrusting rather than an edged sword for cutting.In 1890 he published "Fixed Bayonets", in which he insisted that a competently wielded bayonet should beat a good swordsman, but his views of bayonet fighting were regarded in the army as too theoretical for modern practical instruction.He retorted by deploring military reliance on Italian theories of swordsmanship to the exclusion of effective French practice.