CHEWING CORDITE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIX, Issue 9477, 14 December 1918, Page 3

CHEWING CORDITE.

WAR AVORKERS' HABIT.

When a boy .of 16 working in a munitions factory was taken ill, it vya-s thought that he had been drinking (says a writer in London'" Answers",). The suggestion was denied, however, and it was proved that the lad never touched alcohol; but tho'cause of the mistake lay in tho fact that he had the habit of chewing cordite—the smokeless explosive so largely used iv the manufacture of small arms.

Cordite is a very stimulating: drug, and quickly revives weary nerves, besides being extremely attractive to the taste: but the mere fact that it is composed ohiefly of nitro-glyeorine and sun-cotton makes it a most deadly and dangerous drug, and quickly enslaves its victims. There was rather a memorable instance of some soldiers discovering the stimulating offects of cordite, during the South .African war; .but.■'■the drug was really unknown: until the last two or three years.

To-day the habit of '.chewing cordite is quite common;, especially among all sections of.:'■munition workers whoso ■work brings them into contact 'with the explosive. Medical men in munition areas know, the prevalence of the habit, the hold it has over the. workers, and the harm which it is-'doing its victims. particularly among women and girls. Many munition : workers .start chewing cordite in complete ignorance cii' the harm which it is likely to do thorn, while many who start , the habit po auickly become dependent .upon it that they have not, sufficient strength of will to give it up. More than one munitionere has said that chewing: a bit of cordite occasionally enables them to carry on at hard work when otherwise they would have had to give in.

It is only afterward, when the habit soes from bad to worse, that they realise, their foolishness. There is ii& denying the fact that cordite -recreates force and energy in- a way equalled by no other stimulant; but it is a wholly harmful drug, which ■eats aivuv both the mental and physical system drug which should never be allowed to gainthe mastery. _ In many r-ases, too, cordite givos its victims the a-DDea ranee of drunkenness: more than one person had been thought to be drunk when really they had .teen r-hewing cordite.