DEATH POWDER
A newly-discovered bacillus, of ■which a mere pinch would kill a million men, was described by Professor Leonard Hill in his presidential address to the Sanitary Inspectors' Association conference at Lowestoft (according to a report in the "Daily Chronicle"). "I would call your attention," he said, "to a certain bacillus which shall be nameless, but is easily cultivated. If men are as susceptible as guinea-pigs are to the toxin produced by this bacillus —and there is reason to think that they are—it would appear that one gramme, say, a saltspoonful, of the dry toxin would, suffice to kill a million. The toxin acts if inhaled or if it falls on the eye as a powder. If men set out to prepare such, a toxin and scatter it by aeroplane, what would be the use of the panoply of war? Is it not time to end the waste of money on preparations for war and apply the money so saved [to preventing disease?"
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 148, 19 December 1929, Page 30
Word Count
164DEATH POWDER Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 148, 19 December 1929, Page 30
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