Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-09-07
NEW GAS SHELLS BRING DEATH TO
 FRENCH CIVILIANS
British and French Work ing To Solve Nature ot
 New German Terror.

(Corrsapondence Associated Press) Paris, Aug. Il. = Further details have been obtained about the new gas shells which the Germans are now us- ing, and their effect upon the persons who breath the fumes: Armentieres is the first town Tn the annals of history to have been llter- ally poisoned to such degree that its civil population had to be removed lest | it should be entirely destroyed. While heavy shells were ralned on the houses, forcing the people to take refuge in the cellars, a multitude or small shells, not powerful enough to smash a pavement stone, fell every, where. in street and courtyard and garden. These shells contain no gas or powder but colorless liquid which spreads over the ground. Only very slightly volatile, the liquid leaves traces for hours after the shell mas exploded. It evaporates very slowly, i producing a heavy gas which filters downward and reaches the cellars where refuge has been sought.
 This gas, remarkably tenacious, has made more victims among women than among men, because 1t penetrates the hair and remains there, while tobacco smoke has proved an unexpected pro, tection for men. The odor IS described by some as recalling acetylene, by others as resembling mlgnonette, but the majority say it is like hot must ard. It takes some time to produce it's effects.
 Inhabitants of Armentieres who have breathed it's carnations in the morning, when walking in the town, have been able to return home with out feeling any effects, but five or six hours later they have been obliged to go to bed, and their condition has rapidly become serious.
 The bronchial tubes are affected first, the eyelids become swollen, and little by little the sight is lost. All the mucous membranes are attacked and the body seems on fire inside, while burns (which doctors described as of the "second degree") cover all the skin. Continuous coughing sets in. with a fever temperature, the skin becomes dull and sickly and the affic- tion fatal in many cases.
 A British army medical officer, pro tacted by mask, exposed himself to the gas for a quarter of an hour as an experiment, and was burned all over the body, except where the mask protected his head and on the wrist where the strap of his watch offered protection.
 Father Camelot, dean of saint-Vaast at Armentieres, was poisoned, little
 by little, as he perofrnlel his sacred
 duties. The town, since November 1916, has been reduced to a single
 parish and Father Camelot took charge of it, "wishing," as he said
 "to remain there as long as single
 soul remained" He is the fifth priest of Armentieres to be victim of the
 war.
 The British Army Medical service is making every effort to analyze the
 liquid thus used for producing this
 gas. Its emanations have an analogy with the r-producing gas, which blinds for time, but the effects o1 the new poison are infinitely more se'
 were.
 French investigation of the liqui( tends to show that it is not a new thing but mixture of sulphide ane
 chlorine, already studied and known
 but never before used in this manner
 The proportion of deaths to the mum
 Der of people affected is not high, no
 one per cent for the northern towns
 but the number of people affected may
 be very great.
 The public has been advised that if during an air raid, the smell of must
 ard essence is noted, to move to th' upper stories, and to breathe througl
 a compress soaked with a certain so
 lution. Women have been told t' wrap their hair in wet cloth. Saw
 dust, sand or earth should be throwl
 Ion any of the liquid that may be seer } before it has evaporated, the authori 7 ties have warned; and finally, if an.
 serious case arises and no doctor is a hand, vomiting should be produced a
 rapidly as possible and then larg
 quantities of milk should be drunk.