History of Chemical and Biological Warfare An American Perspective

HISTORY OF CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE AN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE 

Command Historian, U.S. Army Chemical and Biological Defense Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 21010-5423 

Prior to World War I, the United States had little knowledge about the potential of chemical and biological warfare. Particularly in terms of preparing soldiers for future wars, the possibility of chemical 

During the Crimean War, there were several proposals to initiate chemical warfare to assist the Allies, particularly to solve the stalemate during the siege of Sevastopol. In 1854, Lyon Playfair, a British chemist, proposed a cacodyl cyanide artillery shell for use primarily against enemy ships. The British Ordnance Department rejected the proposal as bad a mode of warfare as poisoning the wells of the enemy. 4(p22) Playfair s response outlined a different concept, which was used to justify chemical warfare into the next century  

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Smart, J.K. (1997). History of chemical and biological warfare an American perspective. Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare, Textbook of Military Medicine (F.R. Sidell, E.T. Takafuji, D.R. Franz, eds) O 3 9-86. Office of the Surgeon General, Bordon Institute, Washington, DC. 

Smart, J.K., History of chemical and biological warfare an American perspective. In Sidell, F.R., Takafuji, E.T.,... 

History of Chemical and Biological Warfare An American Perspective... 

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