HUN DEVILRY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 86, 4 January 1918, Page 8

HUN DEVILRY

CHEMISTRY'S DEADLIEST' FUMES. Tho latest devilish device of the Germans, according to E. T. I'.ronsdon writing in "Popular Mechanics," is a. gas that is almost odourless, quite invisible, and that does not get in its deadly work -until about six hours after the fragile shells that conta>i it hurst, the fragile shells that contain it go into convulsions, many- go mad. M'\ Bronsdon makes tlVo remarkable statement that when the Germans threw it into Armentieres recently no fewer than four thousand persous died in agony as a result of it. Tho gas is called, arsintf, and is none other than arseniureted hydrogen, one of the deadliest fumes known to tho chemist. It spreads slowly, and is so heavy that no wind short of a hurricane can dispel it. It creeps along the ground, seeking ever the deepest places, and therefore penetrates not only trendies, but dug-outs. "One whiff," writes -Mr. Bronsdon, "and it does not have to bo a lungful by any imeans, is certain death. Tbere'is no remedy or antidoto known to medical or chemical science. , It attacks the big nerve centres, causing aberration and convulsion, with death in half an hour or so 1 , after the first symptoms are noticed."

But lie points out that tho Germans can uso this gas very rarely, for they have scarcely any arsenic from which to make it, whilo tho Allies, if they decide to use it against the Germans, have an unlimited supply.