Page:"The next war"; an appeal to common sense (IA thenextwarappeal01irwi).pdf/85

 formed a pretty good defence against the first poison gases; its difficulties and imperfections I have mentioned before. But the German mustard gas, the American Lewisite gas, attacks the skin, the one producing bad burns, the other fatally poisoning the system. To protect the individual against such attack there are envisaged at present two methods. The skin of the whole body may be greased with an ointment containing an antidote for the poison. The British were preparing, when the Armistice came, to adopt this defence for their armies against German mustard gas. But this was recognized as an imperfect defence. After your greased troops have for a few hours wallowed in the trenches or endured a rainstorm on the march, the ointment is rubbed off or washed off in patches. Better, if it could be done, would be a protective, chemically-treated suit with gloves and headpiece, perfectly fitting to the mask—in other words, a mask extended to cover the whole body. This may be tried, for armies. After all, they must have uniforms. Finally comes the method of sending the advanced forces to action enclosed in gas-proof tanks.

But when you consider these methods of defence for civilian populations, you encounter special diffculties. In the next European war, shall we have all the inhabitants of Parts living in a coating of protective ointment, the mask ready to hand? Every line officer knows how hard it was to make disciplined soldiers keep on their masks in time of danger.