The Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfare.

The purpose of this treatise is to bring before the medical officers of the United States Army, both regulars and reserve, information which they should possess on the medical aspects of chemical warfare. The introduction presents an excellent brief for this much maligned military weapon. It explains how gas warfare has suffered from Teutonic odium because it was first used by the Germans against defenseless troops. It explains how gas warfare has suffered also from the fact that gaseous weapons are new weapons and because the lay mind is especially sensitive to the somewhat mystic character of all things chemical. This introduction also brings out clearly that the public mind has been confused to a serious degree on this subject. This is in part a reflection of the early propaganda when the weapon was new and distinctly Teutonic, and partly the result of mere exaggeration by unscientific lecturers and writers.