POISON GAS ANTIDOTE

Evening Star, Issue 21147, 6 July 1932, Page 1

POISON GAS ANTIDOTE

DISCOVERY IN ENGLAND RESEARCH OFFICER’S DEATH; The staff Of the Chemical Defence Research Department of the War Office in England has at last, after experiments stretching over fourteen years, discovered ah effective antidote to all gases used in modern warfare. It was disclosed in London that men have been sprayed with poison gas. The antidote was applied. The men survived, the tests, normal and healthy. Not only is the discovery of the greatest value as a means of military defence—it is a gift to humanity. It means that the 8,000,000 citizens of London and the populations of other cities cannot now be killed k in, a night, poisoned horx-ibly by gas bombs dropped from the air. _ ; But in the triumph of this discovery there is the tragedy of sacrifice. The chief expert in charge of the experiments, Major W. R. Galwey, M.C., M.R., D.Ph., died on March 6. He was only fifty-two. He had devoted sixteen years of his life to finding the antidote. He was daily in contact with the most deadly poisons.in-the world always experimenting, working all-'fjjiy anti far into the night. . The cause of death was, given as pneumonia. Rut his staff are certain that he gave his life for his country as surely as any soldier dying on a shell-scarred battlefield. The real experimental station,- where the anti-gas materials and apparatus are tried out, is at Porton, Wiltshire, where a number ’of senior officers of the artillery and engineers', with a band of civil scientists, have investigated- to find protection against gas. Now the life-saving formula has been found. Major Galwey, after a brilliant army career, retired in 192&.He then accepted a civilian post as head of a department at Porton. and a year later was appointed director, of experiment. Mrs Galwey said her husband had worked ceaselessly, and gave his whole life to research work.