SCIENTIFIC VICTORY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 270, 9 July 1932, Page 3

SCIENTIFIC VICTORY

HORRORS OF POISON GAS OYERCOME AT LAST. HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY. The staff of the Chemical Defence Researeh Department of'the War Office in England has at last, after experiments stretching over 14 years, discovered an effeetive anitdote 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 defenoe — 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 in a night, poisoned horribly by gas bombs dropP'ed 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. Galway, M.C., M.B., D.Ph., died on Mareh 6. He was only 52. He had devoted 16 years of his life to finding the antidote. He was daily in contact with the most dealy poisons in the world, always experimenting, working all day and far into the night. The cause of death was given as pneumonia. But 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 retired senior officers of the artillery and engineers, with a band of eivil scientists, have investigated to find protection against gas. Now the life-saving formula has heen found. Major Galwey, after a brilliant army career, retired in 1926. He then accepted a civilian post as head of a department at Porton, and a year later was appointed director of experiments. Mrs. Galwey said h'er husband had worked ceaselessly, .and gave his whole life to researeh work.