The Gases of War

Abstract

DR. H. LEVINSTEIN, in NATURE of February 29, has contributed an interesting letter on the manufacture of mustard gas in England during the Great War, and has objected to my statement that none of British manufacture was actually fired on the Western Front. On the other hand, Fries and West in their book on ” Chemical Warfare”, p. 153, refer to the French as ” the only one of the Allies that manufactured and fired mustard gas”, and further state that ” the Levinstein process would have been a tremendous gain, had the war continued”. Julius Meyer also in ” Der Gaskampf” says that it was only made by Germany's enemies towards the end of the War in quite small quantities, and moreover that the French Army was the only one of the Allies that used it. Elsewhere it has been stated that the French transferred to the British such mustard gas as we did fire.