September 8, 1923] 



NATURE 



155 



has now been traversed by the railway to Fort WiUiam J 

 but its essential wildness remains, and has become 

 known to thousands who otherwise could have realised 

 little of the grimness of the central highlands. We are 

 here on the watershed between the North Sea and the 

 western inlets, and its rugged characters seem typified 

 in the trench-like hollow in which Loch Ericht lies 

 (p. 9). The contoured geological map, with its audacious 

 mass of scarlet where the early Devonian granite forms 

 the moorland, should be studied side by side with the 

 hill-shaded sheet of 1876, on which Mr. R. McFadden 

 gave us what is surely one of the finest examples of 

 hachuring in the world. 



The question of recumbent folds among the meta- 

 morphosed stratified series has been raised by Mr. E. B. 

 Bailey, and the views of the official geologists in this 

 difficult region show healthy differences that will 

 stimulate yet further work. By any one who has 

 emerged on the moorland from the deep cleft of 

 Glencoe, the courage of those who have investigated 

 the district yard by yard must be gratefully acknow- 

 ledged and admired. The most striking feature of the 

 description of the glacial deposits is the evidence that 

 toulders of the Rannoch granite have been abundantly 

 lifted by the land-ice to heights of 1000 feet above the 

 level of the moorland mass. G. A. J. C. 



Medical Science in the War. 



History of the Great War : Based on Official Documents. 

 Medical Services : Diseases of the War. Vol. 2 : 

 Including the Medical Aspects of Aviation and Gas 

 Warfare, and Gas Poisoning in Tanks and Mines. 

 Edited by Maj.-Gen. Sir W. G. Macpherson, Maj.- 

 Gen. Sir W. B. Herringham, Col. T. R. Elliott, and 

 Lt.-Col. A. Balfour. Pp. viii-i-621 + 7 plates -f- 6 

 maps. (London : H.M, Stationery Office, 1923.) 

 255. net. 



AS the details of the War fade away into the past, 

 our perspective of the ordeal emerges more 

 and more clearly, and when viewed from a distance 

 of five or more years, the magnitude of our effort begins 

 to make itself apparent. Time, if it has not yet healed 

 our wounds, has at least enabled a considered diagnosis 

 and history to be made. How wonderful that history 

 was, how resourceful our resistance, how well-earned 

 our victory, can be gathered by reading this truly 

 fascinating account of the work of the Medical Services 

 during the W^ar. Never before in war has the air 

 played so big a part ; its physical properties have 

 loomed large in problems of aviation, while its im- 

 portance in respiration has made physiology one of 

 the most indispensable of sciences in connexion with 

 aviation, gas warfare, and mining operations. 



Application of the results of scientific research led 

 NO. 2810, VOL. I 12] 



to the solution of most of our difficulties. By careful 

 tests men could be selected who were physiologically 

 suitable for flying, while those unfit could be eliminated ; 

 " flying strain " could be detected and treated ; by 

 the use of liquid oxygen aviators could reach heights 

 otherwise unattainable, and still retain their eflftciency. 

 Many lives were saved, and considerable advantage 

 gained in consequence. 



After that portentous experiment of April 22, 191 5, 

 when the aspect of warfare was changed by the use 

 of asphyxiating gas by the Germans, stupendous 

 efforts were made to devise protection against this 

 form of attack. For a while, gas offensive and anti- 

 gas protection strove, on either side of that awful 

 strip of neutral land, each to outdo the other ; the 

 ultimate victory was with the defence. 



That the British box respirator was easily the best 

 in the field cannot be denied by any one who knows 

 all the facts, for it was satisfactory both from the 

 chemical and physiological point of view, and hence 

 this form of respirator was greatly in demand not only 

 for the use of our own troops, but also for those of 

 several of our allies. Its evolution from less perfect 

 predecessors is fully explained in the tenth chapter of 

 the book. Chapter ix. contains a full account of 

 several gas attacks made upon our troops ; in one 

 case at least the reviewer can testify to the complete 

 accuracy of this official account, and has no doubt 

 that all the other accounts are equally accurate, since 

 they were written up in the field by exceptionally 

 able Army chemical advisers, on the basis of verified 

 reports by the units concerned. 



Gas warfare reached a crescendo in July 191 7 when 

 mustard gas was first employed, and the number of 

 casualties suddenly jumped up, and even with the most 

 stringent precautions remained high until the end of 

 the War, This was due, not to inefficiency of the 

 respirator, but to difficulties of detection of the gas, 

 and to damage done to the general body surface by 

 the substance. In spite of all our precautions the 

 total reported gas casualties were 180,983, not counting 

 some who died on the spot, or were taken prisoner ; 

 something more than 6000 of these died, while about 

 19,000 had been classed for pensions during the year 

 1919-1920. This forms about 2 per cent, of the total 

 post- War disabilities, which is only a small number ; 

 very few of these men have since died from indisputable 

 effects of gassing. The medical treatment of gas- 

 poisoning may therefore be said to be fairly satis- 

 factory, and is fully discussed, together with the 

 pathology of gas-poisoning, in the official account. 



Much has been written elsewhere about gas warfare ; 

 it has been described as a cheap, effective, and humane 

 means of attack, and also as the most costly, most 



