POISON GAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 October 1938, Page 5

POISON GAS

ALARMIST STORIES EXPLODED. NO NEW DISCOVERIES. Rumours that super poison gases of an unknown deadly character will make their appearance'in modern war were discredited by Professor H. W. Davies, Professor of Physiology at the University of Sydney, when he delivered a lecture on “Chemistry in National Defence” at the Chemical Industries Exposition in Sydney recently. He described such rumours as, "alarmist stories.” “It would scarcely be possible toi the world to be taken by surprise in this way,” said Professor Davies, "because most of the substances used in chemical warfare are comparatively simple compounds put togethei by chemists and all fairly well known. Although these compounds may be of a very deadly character when brought into contact with unprotected persons, the fact remains that the more complex the gas the more readily is it capable of being neutralised by the ordinary respirator.” The idea that when war occurred chemists sat down and deliberately invented new and dreadful agents for military purposes was a delusion, said Professor Davies. All the poison gases which were used in the Great War had been well known to chemistry before 1914, some them having been regarded as laboratory curiosities, others having had important uses in chemical industries. Chlorine, for example, which was one of the gases used, was discovered in 1774, and was employed in a variety of industrial processes. Phosgene, another war gas, was manufactured on a large scale for industrial purposes at the beginning of the century. and mustard gas was first discovered by the English chemist Guthrie in 1860.