Bullets, Ricin

During World War I, the US War Department investigated ricin for chemical warfare use (Audi et al, 2005). At that time it was being considered for use either as a toxic dust or as a coating for bullets and shrapnel. However, the toxic dust concept could not be adequately developed, and the coated bullet/shrapnel concept would violate the Hague Convention of 1899. The war ended before it was weaponized. 

This doesn t mean ricin bullets or darts should be discounted. Under the skin, the stuff is much more potent. A hollow-point. 22 bullet, spread out slightly and packed with finely powdered castor bean would surely be fatal. But use a drop of mucilage instead of water in the poerder and let dry a few days and seal with Elmer s Glue. 

These experiments show two important points (1) easily prepared preparations of ricin can be made to adhere to shrapnel bullets, (2) there is no loss in toxicity of firing and even with the crudest method of coating the bullets, not a very considerable loss of the material itself.. .. It is not unreasonable to suppose that every wound inflicted by a shrapnel bullet coated with ricin would produce a serious casualty.. .. Many wounds which would otherwise be trivial would be fatal.29(pl 121... 

Service (CWS). This unit had a staff of 75, including Capt. Winfred Lee Lewis, who oversaw development lewisite at CUA. Additionally, the toxins ricin and juglone were produced here as part of a poison-bullet development program that was reportedly initiated because of intelligence information that indicated the Germans were carrying out such work. See also AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. 

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