MUSTARD GAS

Southland Times, Issue 18965, 13 June 1923, Page 7

MUSTARD GAS

FURTHER WAR SECRETS. HEAVY CASUALTY INCREASES. Secrets of gas warfare are revealed in a further volume of the history of the war, recently made available to the public through the Stationery Office. Our authorities find that in the beginning of the German gas warfare are casualties up to July, 1917, when mustardgas began to be employed among the Brittroops, were comparatively small. But from July onwards, during successive gas attacks,” states the report, “the casualties rose from 1000 to over 6000 a month.” The use of gas is not new in warfare, and we are told that “An ancient historian describes the use of asphyxiating gas in mining in 189 8.C., at the siege of Ambracia, where the Actolians filled jars with feathers, which were set on fire, the smoke being blown by bellow sinto the faces of the Romans.” Apart from the yellow, blue and green gases sent over by the enemy, against which, it is claimed, our protective measures were more effective than those taken by the enemy against Allied gas attacks, there were cases of gas poison from tanks and mines. The chief problem in tanks was to protect the men from poisonous gas, notably carbon monoxide, amanating from their own exhaust pipes and radiators, or the exhausts of other tanks in front. Carbon monoxide was also the cause of the greatest number of poisoning cases in mining, and the administration of gen with artificial respiration made most cures. In an account of the value of oxygen to aviators flying at great heights in rarefied air, light is thrown upon the prejudices even of experts. It took some time to make our Air Force pathologists believe it was possible to use oxygen for this puspose. The first experiment was at Dunkirk early in the war, but the only result of that test was to prejudice the authorities against it owing to an Unfounded assumption by the pilot that it produced drowsiness.