Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-01-26
Chief of Medical Sectionr
Army Chemical Warfare
Service, Here to Defend
Method-No After Effects
BY ROY FLANAGAN

Colonel H. L. Gilchrist, chief Of
the medical section of the army
chemical warfare service, came to
Atlanta Monday to defend poison
gas. Colonel Gilchrist wears six
gold service stripes, and has about
two yards or service and decoration
ribbons. He is said to know more
Adopt poisonous gases than any
other man in America.
During twenty-four years in the
army, Colonel Gilchrist has seen
warfare under every kind of condi-
ton, and he has, treated American
soldiers for nearly every kind of
wound-bolo, kriss, army mule,
saber, bayonet, bullet, shrapnel, air
bomb, and high explosive. He has
been a first-hand observer of every
horror that war can visit upon SOL
der.
And he says that poison gas is
the most humane weapon warfare
has ever known.
SOAO11O4 SpOh0 hOAOety
evening before Atlanta physicians
and the physicians of Atlanta branch
of the United States veterans bureau
at Davis-Fischer sanitarium. He
speaks again Tuesday evening.
It was during an interview at the
Piedmont hotel shortly after his ar
rival in Atlanta that he first an
nounced himself as q champion of
chemical warfare.
Gas is the most humane weapon
because only two per cent of the
soldiers disabled die from it." said
Colonel Gilchrist.
No After Effects
"There are no after effects. Those
SO per cent who were gassed and did
not die, got well-completely well.
This bunk about gas killing a SOL
der years after he got his dose of 1t
has been entirely disproven since the
war.
warfare gas-mustard, the hell
gas and phosgene, and eight other
popular brands-knocks soldiers out.
It sends them back to the hospital
very sick. Back of the lines, it
takes four men and much money to
take care of each gassed soldier and
make him WELL The war goes on
with these men out of it.
Meanwhile the soldiers who are
shot are dying much more rapidly.
When a. soldier is dead it takes only
one man fifteen minutes to take care
Of him. Therefore, in this grim bus
mess of war, it takes much more
man power, much more money, much
more time and space and transpor-
tation to care for disabled soldier
than for dead soldier.
$50 from a cold-blooded military
standpoint, it is Of more military i'm
portance to disable large proportion
of the enemy than to kill even on q
very large scale. Gas disables most
effectively and cheaply.
"Poison gas, being new weapon,
is much misunderstood. 1t IS SAID
to be horrible and brutal and inhu-
man, but is it? Gas casualties 90
not lose arms and legs. They aren't
shockingly mutilated. Very Few are
blinded. There is not nearly as much
pain and death associated with its
military use as with explosives, bull
let's and bayonets. Figures say that
only about 200 American soldiers out
of 10000 affected, died from gas on
the battlefield. A little over thou
sand died from gas, in hospitals back
Of the lines. ~
Gas Not Responsible
Colonel Gilchrist went on to ex-
n1ain his mission to the doctors OF
the Veterans bureau. He has been
investigating gas casualties ever
since the war to determine what part
warfare gas has played in causing
nost-war diseases of the lungs ana
| nervous system.
1T have received more than $500
letters from doctors or America
England, France, Germany, ltaly'
and other countries, in answer to IN
ouiries on this subject" said CoioHA
Gilchrist. '"They say that tubercu-
losis occurs no oftener among sol
dfers gassed during the war than
among soldiers who were not gassed.
"Infuenza, I believe, has been re-
sponSible for most OF the tupercu-
losis and other diseases that followed
soldiers after the war. About 7O0,-
600 men were hospitalized Tor IN
f1uenza. Ten per cent of these died.
Many others still are suffering from
the ravages of the disease. Some OF
them think that gas was responsible,
but it was not. Facts show that
they cannot blame it on gas.
"Gass is horrible. 1t is warfare
lust like bullets and bayonets. There
is no telling to what extent the
gas warfare may develop in the fu-
ture. I would hate to say. But
do want to say that poison gas is
more humane than other military
weapons"
Colonel Gilchrist was largely re-
sponsible for Americas great prog
ress in gas warfare between the
spring Of 1917 and the fall OF 1913
When the armistice was signed
America was making more warfare
gas than all the allies combined
eight times more.
After the war, Colonel Gilchrist
had the important, If unpleasant,
task Of delousing the entire Ameri-
can expeditionary force. Later he
was sent to Poland as director OF
| the American ministry of public
health.