Chemical warfare

by Amos A. Fries; Clarence J. West

“It is expressly forbidden (a), to employ poisons or poisonous weapons.”

Before the War suffocating cartridges were shot from the cartridge-throwing rifle of 26 mm. These cartridges were charged with ethyl bromoacetate, a slightly suffocating and non-toxic lachrymator. They were intended for attack on the flanking works of permanent fortifications, flanking casements or caponiers, into which the enemy tried to make the cartridges penetrate through the narrow slits used for loopholes. The men who were serving the machine guns or the cannon of the flanking works would have been bothered by the vapor from the ethyl bromoacetate, and the assailant would have profited by their disturbance to get past the obstacle presented by the fortification. The employment of these devices, not entailing death, did not contravene the Hague conventions.

The only memorable operations in the course of which these devices were used before the War was the attack on the Bonnet gang at Choisy-le-roi.

In connection with the suggested use of sulfur dioxide by Lord Dundonald and the proposed use of poisonous gases in shell, the following description of a charcoal respirator by Dr. J. Stenhouse,[3] communicated by Dr. George Wilson in 1854, is of interest.

“Dr. Wilson commenced by stating that, having read with much interest the account of Dr. Stenhouse’s researches on the deodorizing and disinfecting properties of charcoal, and the application of these to the construction of a new and important kind of respirator, he had requested the accomplished chemist to send one of his instruments for exhibition to the society, which he had kindly done. Two of the instruments were now on the table, differing, however, so slightly in construction, that it would be sufficient to explain the arrangement of one of them. Externally, it had the appearance of a small fencing-mask of wire gauze, covering the face from the chin upwards to the bridge of the nose, but leaving the eyes and forehead free. It consisted, essentially, of two plates of wire gauze, separated from each other by a space of about one-fourth or one-eighth of an inch, so as to form a small cage filled with small fragments of charcoal. The frame of the cage was of copper, but the edges were made of soft lead, and were lined with velvet, so as to admit of their being made to fit the cheeks tightly and inclose the mouth and nostrils. By this arrangement, no air could enter the lungs without passing through the wire gauze and traversing the charcoal. An aperture is provided with a screw or sliding valve for the removal and replenishment of the contents of the cage, which consist of the siftings or riddlings of the lighter kinds of wood charcoal. The apparatus is attached to the face by an elastic band passing over the crown of the head and strings tying behind, as in the case of the ordinary respirator. The important agent in this instrument is the charcoal, which has so remarkable a power of absorbing and destroying irritating and otherwise irrespirable and poisonous gases or vapors that, armed with the respirator, spirits of hartshorn, sulphuretted hydrogen, hydrosulphuret of ammonia and chlorine may be breathed through it with impunity, though but slightly diluted with air. This result, first obtained by Dr. Stenhouse, has been verified by those who have repeated the trial, among others by Dr. Wilson, who has tried the vapors named above on himself and four of his pupils, who have breathed them with impunity. The explanation of this remarkable property of charcoal is two-fold. It has long been known to possess the power of condensing into its pores gases and vapors, so that if freshly prepared and exposed to these, it absorbs and retains them. But it has scarcely been suspected till recently, when Dr. Stenhouse pointed out the fact, that if charcoal be allowed to absorb simultaneously such gases as sulphuretted hydrogen and air, the oxygen of this absorbed and condensed air rapidly oxidizes and destroys the accompanying gas. So marked is this action, that if dead animals be imbedded in a layer of charcoal a few inches deep, instead of being prevented from decaying as it has hitherto been supposed that they would be by the supposed antiseptic powers of the charcoal, they are found by Dr. Stenhouse to decay much faster, whilst at the same time, no offensive effluvia are evolved. The deodorizing powers of charcoal are thus established in a way they never have been before; but at the same time it is shown that the addition of charcoal to sewage refuse lessens its agricultural value contemporaneously with the lessening of odor. From these observations, which have been fully verified, it appears that by strewing charcoal coarsely powdered to the extent of a few inches, over church-yards, or by placing it inside the coffins of the dead, the escape of noisome and poisonous exhalations may be totally prevented. The charcoal respirator embodies this important discovery. It is certain that many of the miasma, malaria and infectious matters which propagate disease in the human subjects, enter the body by the lungs, and impregnating the blood there, are carried with it throughout the entire body, which they thus poison. These miasma are either gases and vapors or bodies which, like fine light dust, are readily carried through the air; moreover, they are readily destroyed by oxidizing agents, which convert them into harmless, or at least non-poisonous substances, such as water, carbonic acid and nitrogen. There is every reason, therefore, for believing that charcoal will oxidize and destroy such miasma as effectually as it does sulphuretted hydrogen or hydrosulphuret of ammonia, and thus prevent their reaching and poisoning the blood. The intention accordingly is that those who are exposed to noxious vapors, or compelled to breathe infected atmospheres, shall wear the charcoal respirator, with a view to arrest and destroy the volatile poisons contained in these. Some of the non-obvious applications of the respirator were then referred to:

“1. Certain of the large chemical manufacturers in London are now supplying their workmen with the charcoal respirators as a protection against the more irritating vapors to which they are exposed.

“2. Many deaths have occurred among those employed to explore the large drains and sewers of London from exposure to sulphuretted hydrogen, etc. It may be asserted with confidence that fatal results from exposure to the drainage gases will cease as soon as the respirator is brought into use.

“3. In districts such as the Campagna of Rome, where malaria prevails and to travel during night or to sleep in which is certainly followed by an attack of dangerous and often fatal ague, the wearing of the respirator even for a few hours may be expected to render the marsh poison harmless.

“4. Those, who as clergymen, physicians or legal advisers, have to attend the sick-beds of sufferers from infectious disorders, may, on occasion, avail themselves of the protection afforded by Dr. Stenhouse’s instrument during their intercourse with the sick.

“5. The longing for a short and decisive war has led to the invention of ‘a suffocating bombshell,’ which on bursting, spreads far and wide an irrespirable or poisonous vapor; one of the liquids proposed for the shell is the strongest ammonia, and against this it is believed that the charcoal respirator may defend our soldiers. As likely to serve this end, it is at present before the Board of Ordnance.