THEY CHEW CORDITE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 705, 19 September 1914, Page 3

THEY CHEW CORDITE.

One of the troiibles of most European armies is that those soldiers who can get hold of it insist on .using that terrible explosive cordite as if it were a sort of chewing gum. Its popularity is due to the fact that when chewed in small quantities it has a stimulating and exhilarating effect, like small doses of alcohol. Its taste, too, is sweet, cordite being three-fifths nitro-glyce-rine, an explosive which is sugary to the taste. When chewed in large quantities cordite becomes more powerful in its effects, bringing on a blissful state of ecstasy, and sometimes making the victim of the habit see visions. But the real danger of ths habit lies in the fact that though nitro-glycerine will only explode when given a very hard blow or touched by an electrio spark, there is always a possibility that the grinding of exceptionally hard teeth might provide the necessary hard blow. Within the last few years, at least, three soldiers—two German and one Austrian—have been blown to bits, the use of cordite as a chewing gum being the suspected cause. The habit was not unknown in the British Army some years ago, till the military authorities took steps to stop it.