Killing By Millions

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 760, 5 September 1929, Page 9

Killing By Millions

DEADLY TOXIN DISCOVERED War’s Panoply Made Useless SCIENTIST KEEPS GRIM SECRET (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (United Service) Received 9.27 a.m. LONDON, Wednesday. THERE is a toxin that could be employed to kill millions of men,” declares Professor Leonard Hill, F.R.S., contrasting the power of the scientific laboratory with modern war machinery.

“If men are as susceptible as guinea , pigs to tlie toxin (which shall be nameless) —and there is every reason to think they are—it would appear that one saltspoonful of this dry toxin would suffice to kill 100,000 men. The toxin acts if it is inhaled, or if it fails on the eye in a powder. If such a toxin were prepared and scattered from an airplane, what would avail all the panoply of war?” Professor Hill is director of the De- 1 partment of Applied Physiology in the j National Institute of Medical Re-! search at Mount Vernon, Hampstead, j GAS MOST POTENT WEAPON , Reed. 9.5 a.h. SYDNEY, Today. | Addressing the naval and military section of the Medical Congress, Dr. (

F. A. Maguire, declaring that gas would be the most potent weapon in future wars, suggested that the authorities should educate civilians in the various hinds of gas likely to be used. Tt was possible to give every citizen a respirator, and tell him how to use it, and it might be possible to provide a reserve store of respirators. General G. W. Barber, directorgeneral of the Australian Medical Services, announced that the question of the protection of the civil population was now under consideration. The Defence Department had already made provision for troops in Australia. He pointed out that in the event of war, and the enemy spraying a certain district, it would be most desirable to evacuate as many people as possible.