Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/380

LEFT ASPHYXIA 302 ASPHYXIATING GAS ASPHYXIA, suspended animation; an Germans had been able to use a greater interruption of the arterialization of the amount than their supplies permitted blood, causing the suspension of sen- or if they had sensed to the full the sation and voluntary motion. It may effect it was producing in their enemies' be produced by breathing some gas in- capable of furnishing oxygen by sub- mersion under water, by suffocation, from an impediment to breathing applied to the mouth and nostrils, by strangulation, or by great pressure, external or internal, upon the lungs. If asphyxia continue unrelieved for a short period, it is neces- sarily followed by death. ASPHYXIATING GAS. This new and tfrrible weapon was introduced into the World War by the German military authorities. At the battle of Ypres, April 22, 1915, it was used for the first time in warfare. The idea itself was not new. Dundonald, an eminent British chemist, who was born in 1775 and died in 1860, had informed his Government that it was possible to produce asphyxiat- ing gas of such a character and in such LASTIC ISINOLAM LEATHEir DIAGRAM OF GAS MASK quantities as to make it a formidable weapon of offense. That Government, however, had rejected the idea as being too inhuman. The Hague Convention of 1899 had expressly condemned its use. The conception therefore was by no means novel to military chiefs. It re- mained for Germany to initiate its use in battle. The first gas attack produced almost a panic. The soldiers who gazed vvonder- ingly at the clouds of chlorine gas creep- ing toward them suddenly found them- selves gasping for breath or convulsed with terrible agony. There is but little doubt but that at that time, if the DIAGRAM OF GAS MASK ranks, they could have broken through and reached the Channel. As it was, the quantity was limited, and all the resources of the Allied scientific world were employed at once to neutralize the effects of this new and deadly weapon. It was speedily discovered that the only defense was the use of gas masks, in which charcoal and other chemicals were able to absorb the gas or render it in- nocuous. Later on, wincing under the charges of inhumanity and anxious to forestall the reprobation of the neutral world, the Germans charged that the gas had been previously used by the British and the French on March 1, 1915. This was demonstrated to be a pure invention. It is certain that long before the end of the war, the German authorities regretted having brought asphyxiating gas into general use, for it was turned on them with deadly effect by the Allies, who, being forced to "fight fire with fire," adopted it as a necessary retaliation. Allied energy and ingenuity developed the gas in far greater quantities than was possible for the Germans, and used it with much effect. Moreover the meteoro- logical conditions in the zone of warfare favored the Entente, because the winds for 75 per cent, of the time set toward the German lines. At the time the armi- stice was signed, America was produc*