LEWISITE.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 June 1919, Page 2

LEWISITE.

AMERICA’S POSITION GAS,

' In reference to a cable from New York published last week stating that the Chemical Division of the United States army, before. the armistice, had planned to send aeroplanes to Germany for the purpose of pouring down the deadliest poison known, which has been named Lewisite, the New York Times gave an account of the manufacture of this “gas," which was to‘ be used in liquid ffirm. This frightful Chemical compound is sai‘-I to be 72 times deadlier .tha'n the German mustard gas. It is described as an oily, amber liquid having the fragrance of geranium blossoms, and deadly by contact: or inhalation. It i:< even said that “a drop on the hand .would cause intolerable agony and deatlf after a few hO11I'S.l” Yet not one Worker died from its effects while eniployedin its manufac.tul'c, So socret was the process that 800 men who were engaged in the works were voluntary prisoners in factories surrounded by stockades for three month.-s previous to the armistice, and while actual manufacture was going on. With the armistice came the puzzling question as to what should‘ be done with the lal'2tj€“3;qllantity 111-‘ ready complete. The factory was‘ situated near Cleveland, Ohio. It seems ;impossible to denaturalise the deadliness of Lewisite by chemical action, yet “almost enough was on hand to destroy the entire people of the Uni-' ted States_” It was proposed to dump the poisonous stuff into Lake Erie,‘ but Clevenland objected seriously to! such a step——and‘ no wonder. Finally' it was brought in large iron contain-I ers——“methyl” does not. react on iron —in slow trains and with e‘x'ceeding precaution, to a point near Boltimore, and then taken out 50 miles to sea. where the containers were gently lowered into water three miles” deep!