Medicine: War Gas Protection

The next war, militarists agree, will be a war of gas. It will be waged on civilians as well as soldiers. The French, a practical people, realize this, yet they have done little to teach their civilians a defense against poison gas. This failure the French Congress of Hygiene, which met at the Paris Pasteur Institute last week, sought to remedy. Poland, Germany, Russia and Italy teach their people gas protection. The Congress advised the French Government to imitate and enlarge the methods :

Every person should be taught how to wear and use a gas mask. A depot of masks should be available in every community. Those who cannot handle masks —children, invalids, the aged, the wounded —should have cellar refuges. Large cities should have several refuge districts with a protected cellar in each. Every new, large building should have a gas-proof basement. The cellars should be ventilated through tall chimneys. This is essential, because poison gases discharged from either ground or airplane tanks are heavy, settle close to earth. Outside of each community there should be safety zones, protected like Red Cross stations by international agreement.