The Cordova daily times., 1916-07-19
l. ]. OFFICER R INVESTIGATES
 GASES

Spencer Cosby, United States military attche at Paris. has been speaking in a hoarse whisper of late. His friends have noted it and have expressed their regrets at his very bad cold. Colonel 1 Cosby's voice has not permitted him to reply, and he has let 1t go at that "a colds But it was not a cold.
 The use which the German army has made of poison gas in the present war has brought a new and terrible element of destruction into military science. Just what this terrible new agency is, what part it plays in the offensive and defensive tactics, and to what extent, if any, it must be reck- oned with as a permanent element in future warfare these are problems which the military experts throughout the world are trying to determine. Here in France where the poison gas has been used with most deadly effect in Champagne, Argonne and all along the fighting line, it's ravages have been particularly apparent, and the mill tary attaches of many countries have been active in securing data for their governments on this new agency.
 Ia, tcrest of his brother military investi- gators and in one respect he went far beyond them. There was ample data, from the battlefields and the hospi- tals, where ghastly patients were a liv- ing witness of the effects of the new element. But Colonel Cosby deter mined on a direct personal investiga- tiOn on the element itself - the poi son gas in all it's forms - just as medical scientist has at times put some new serum to the supreme test on himself
 But you should be warned of the extreme risk" said the chief chemist. "It is very dangerous-a matter of life and death"
 Yet against the warning was the feeling that a mysterious agency of warfare needed to be explored to it's very end And so the word was given to go ahead and. the official wheels turned swiftly in bringing together all sorts of gas, fresh and powerful, from the nearby fighting fronts.
 The facilities for such a test of the gases were not easily obtained, But these were at last secured, and the American military attache was the first and only one to be granted these exceptional facilities. With these pre- liminaries arranged, Colonel Cosby found himself in the presence of a long line of bottles, ranged on shelves, much as in a chemists shop. Sur geons and white garbed attendants and chemical experts were about, with pestle and mortar, vacuum pumps and alright jars, making experiments and tests of gases and antidotes. Nearby hung a line of gas masks, with gaping eye-holes, used to counteract the poi sonous fumes.
 The large bottle contained the vari- GUS forms of liquid gas, direct from the front. and in varying degrees CiI strength Most of them showed volatile yellowsh liquid which, on be- ing exposed to the air gave off the deadly gases which have wrought such havoc. There were three distinct groups of these: first, those bursting into flame and commonly known as liquid flame; second, the tear-produc- ing gases, which do not kill or perma- nently main, but which so blind a column of rushing trops that they be- come helpless and are brought to a halt; and, third, the actual poison gas which suffocates and kills with ten times the horror of bullet or shell. This last, it is the belief of military experts, is a barbarism of warfare, which must be ultimately baned by the universal sentiment of civilization, But they are equally of the belief that the lesser forms of gas - which dol not kill but merely interrupt the for ward progress of an attack - are a permanent element of defensive mili- tary strategy which must be taken in- to consideration in future warfare.
 This is the least deadly" explained the chief chemist, as he presented one of the bottle containing the inflamma- tory gas. He drew the glass stopper very cautiously, and Colonel Cosby took a slight whiff of the gas. It was not overpowering or violent in its eff fleets only pungent odor of ether Now the second class of gases were sua..