May 



1922] 



NA TURE 



661 



Science and Gas Warfare.^ 



T Look upon it as a great honour to have been 

 invited to come here to-day, and I appreciate 

 the compliment whirch has been paid me. It was 

 my privilege to be associated with many of the 

 leading British men of science during the war, and, 

 if I may say so without presumption, I regarded them 

 with the greatest admiration. I was intimately 

 connected with certain phases of their work, and I 

 was also brought into contact with the war work 

 (carried out on the same lines) of most of our allies, 

 as well as of our late enemies : and while implying 

 nothing derogatory to the latter, I have no hesitation 

 in declaring that in the matter of practical achieve- 

 ment British men of science were second to none. 



The war was one in which science played a part 

 which increased progressively in importance : and 

 the Empire owes a debt, the extent of which perhaps it 

 does not fully realise, to the able scientific workers 

 who gave their services — often in an honorary 

 capacity — in solving the various vital problems which 

 were put before them — problems in preventive 

 medicine, optics, sound-ranging, aeroplane design, 

 chemical warfare, and so on : and to the scientific 

 institutions all over the country which provided them 

 with facilities for their researches. 



It is not surprising to find that this College, with 

 its Imperial associations and great record of public 

 service, took a leading part in this work — the work 

 of winning the war. A prominent feature in the 

 Nominal Roll of the College is the variety of the 

 service which was given by its past and present 

 students. Their names appear in every department 

 of army activity, but more especially in the various 

 branches of my own Corps, the Royal Engineers. 

 We have been called the scientific Corps ; but while 

 not pretending that this is an accurate description, 

 we are, and always have been, at any rate the link 

 between the army and the scientific world, and I 

 think I can claim that we are very receptive of all 

 scientific proposals and alive to their developments. 

 Many of the students of this College served in that 

 branch of the Corps with which I was most intimately 

 concerned, and the names of some of them are 

 engraved on this tablet. 



Owing to the secrecy which it was necessary to 

 maintain during the war, the general public has still, 

 I believe, little idea of the prominent part which 

 chemical warfare played on the field of battle on 

 the Western Front. Between the Battle of Loos, 

 in September 19 15, and the armistice, the activity 

 of the Special Brigade was almost incessant, and 

 gas attacks were carried out on an average on two 

 nights out of every three during the whole period. 

 Some 800 separate attacks were made — against 

 about 25 by the Germans against us — and nearly 

 ten thousand tons of gas were liberated, quite apart 

 from the work of the artillery : and many were the 

 variations practised in the form of attack, as regards 

 tactics, mechanical appliances, and meteorological 

 conditions. 



The enemy's casualties from these gas attacks 

 probably numbered between 100,000 and 200,000, 

 amongst whom the percentage of mortality was very 

 high. These operations were carried out, for the 

 most part, by young students fresh from civil life, 

 who had had little preparation for the work and 

 practically no military training whatever. In spite 

 of the heavy artillery bombardments to which they 

 were subjected — the retaliation for which each gas 

 discharge was the signal — these young men combined 



' Address by Col. C. H. Foulkes when unveiling the War Memorial of the 

 Royal College of Science on March 29. 



NO. 2742, VOL. 109] 



with their technical skill a standard of personal 

 courage worthy of veteran soldiers : and many 

 distinctions were conferred on them, including the 

 Victoria Cross. But it was not only in the front-line 

 trenches that British men of science distinguished 

 themselves in France. When the Germans launched 

 their first gas attack against us in April 19 15 our 

 soldiers were unprepared and quite unprotected : 

 and it must remain one of our proudest memories 

 that they stood at their posts, and hundreds of them 

 died there : it was due to the initiative and the 

 energetic action taken by your Rector, Sir Alfred 

 Keogh, then the head of the Medical Service at the 

 War Office, and the steps devised by Prof. Haldane 

 of Oxford, Prof. Baker and the late Prof. Watson 

 of this College, and Prof. Jones of Manchester — then 

 a private in the London Scottish — that the lives of 

 thousands of British soldiers were saved in the 

 course of the next few weeks. The protective 

 appliance then extemporised was gradually developed 

 in efficiency, chiefiy by the late Lt.-Col. Harrison, 

 until it became eventually a very perfect apparatus, 

 millions of which were issued to the American and 

 Italian armies as well as to our own. 



This, however, was not the only scientific work 

 undertaken for the protection of our troops. Know- 

 ing that we were only on the threshold of scientific 

 discovery in its relation to gas warfare, we were 

 always keenly sensitive to the appearance of any 

 new chemical substance on the field of battle. 

 In order to recognise it immediately it appeared, and 

 to take the necessary steps to combat it, a very 

 efficient chemical intelligence department was 

 organised — quite separate from that which served 

 the General Staff. A gas officer was appointed to 

 each division in the field, one of whose duties it was 

 to report all German gas attacks and bombardments 

 — by telephone, and during its actual progress if it 

 was an important one. If any novel symptoms of 

 gas poisoning appeared anywhere on the front an 

 able physiologist, who made a speciaUty of this 

 work, went immediately to investigate them. If a 

 new gas shell was suspected, samples of earth and 

 water from the shell craters were collected for 

 analysis, and an unexploded shell-case was located 

 and dug up as soon as possible and sent in to a central 

 laboratory for examination. 



Opening these shells, the contents of which were 

 often under pressure, was difficult and dangerous 

 work : and I have little doubt that it was owing 

 to his personal devotion to it, and the complete 

 disregard of his own safety, that the late Prof. 

 Watson, who was the Director of this laboratory, 

 sacrificed his health, and eventually his life. I 

 think it would interest you to hear that such was the 

 efficiency of this chemical intelligence service that 

 when the Germans first introduced mustard gas — 

 then practically an unknown substance — warnings 

 were telegraphed to all our armies, tabulating the 

 injuries caused and the precautions which should 

 be taken to avoid them, while an approximate 

 analysis of the contents of one of the shells had also 

 been made — all between 24 and 48 hours of its first 

 use. When we came to summarise our knowledge 

 of mustard gas at the end of the war, after a further 

 18 months' experience of it, it was found that there 

 was little that could be added to the statement 

 originally issued. 



In conclusion, I ought not to omit reference to the 

 devoted work done at home in connection with chemi- 

 cal warfare in the various research laboratories and 

 munitions factories all over Great Britain. One of 



