Medical Aspects of Gas Warfare

Ireland, M. (1926). Medical aspects of gas warfare. In The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War, Vol. XIV pp. 1-769 US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. 

Fig. 3-23. The figure legend that was published with this photograph in the official history of the U.S. Army Medical Department in World War I reads Gross changes in larynx and trachea of a soldier who died four days after inhalation of mustard gas. Purulent secretions in the smaller bronchi rather than at the glottis caused the respiratory failure that lead to the death of this soldier. The efficacy of tracheal suction in clearing the airway appears not to have been widely known during World War I. Reprinted from Weed FM, ed. Medical Aspects of Gas Warfare. Vol 14. In Ireland MW, ed. The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War. Washington, DC Government Printing Office 1926 Plate 10.

Weed FW, ed. Medical Aspects of Gas Warfare. Vol 14. In Ireland MW, ed. The Medical Department of the United States Army in World War. Washington, DC US Department of the Army, Medical Department, Office of The Surgeon General, US Government Printing Office 1926. 

Fries and West, Chemical Warfare, p. 104. Medical Aspects of Gas Warfare, p. 30. 

For a decade and a half following World War I there had been a Medical Division in OC CWS. But in 1932 General Gilchrist had eliminated this division, and thereafter CWS and the Medical Department maintained co-ordination solely through the medical research group at Edgewood Arsenal. Just prior to World War II, increased emphasis began to be placed on the medical aspects of gas warfare, and a Committee on the Treatment of Gas Casualties was set up within the National Research Council. Later, when the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was activated, the work was also carried on by its various committees and subcommittees. The chemical warfare functions of the National Research... 

There are several published volumes which discuss the origin and activities of the Chemical Warfare Service in World Wat I. These include Benedict Crowell, America s Munitions, i ij-i iS (Washington GPO, 1919) Amos A. Fries and Clarence J. West, Chemical Warfare (New York McGraw Hill, 1921) and Medical Aspects of Gas Warfare, Volume XIV of the series MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD WAR (Washington GPO, 1926). Volumes XV and XVI of the series UNITED STATES ARMY IN THE WORLD WAR (Washington GPO, 1948), prepared by the Historical Division, Special Staff United States Army, contain data on the Chemical Warfare Service, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). More valuable as a source of information is the official history of the Chemical Warfare Service, American Expeditionary Forces, a copy of which is on file in the Chemical Corps Historical Office. Especially useful in this history are the appendixes which ate copies of pertinent directives. On the organizational development of the Chemical Warfare Service in the zone of interior, the most fmitful sources of information are M. T. Bogert s and W. H. Walker s History of the Chemical Service Section, on file at the Technical Library, Army Chemical Center, Maryland, and the annual reports of the CWS for the years 1918, 1919, and 1920. The retired CWS files in the National Archives contain some important documents. 

---