GERM-LADEN AIR BOMBS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15487, 14 January 1916, Page 10

GERM-LADEN AIR BOMBS.

STRANGE MORTALITY AMONG ZEPPELIN VICTIMS. Tho extraordinary, high proportion, of deaths following injuries caused by Zeppelin bombs has'led to a strong suspicion among surgeons who have treated these cases that the bombs have been impregnated witli deadly disease germs (says thb medical correspondent of the London "Daily-Mail" of November 19 th). The evidence in favour' of tho bombs having been so treated was reviewed, yesterday by ono of the surgeons of a hospital in. the London area tp which some forty seriously-injured victims of the last raid were admitted for treatment. "In tho first place." the I surgeon stated, "the death-rate among these cases has been at least five times as high as one would expect in patients wounded equally severely, either in battle or accidentally in civil life. In practically all the cases a germ causing rapidly fatal gangrene, very rarely met with in ordinary hospital practice, has been discovered by the hospital bacteriologists. "Patients who received the" best treatment afforded by a modern hospital within ten minutes of being injured suffered a much higher death-rate than soldiers at tho front who, after receiving wounds outwardly of the same degree of severity, have had to wait 2-4 hours or more before being treated. . "Enquiries are being made to determine whether the Italian bacteriologists have found tho _ same germ in' the wounds of those injured in the recent raid on Verona. Tf this very rare can-grcnc-causing germ has been found there also, it will be pretty strong evidence that the bombs have been deliberately impregnated with one. of the most deadly varieties of disease germs known.'' .