The veil of secrecy behind which many of the scientific investigations in relation to the prosecution of the war have necessarily and properly been conducted is gradually being lifted. Among the large number of startling items of information thus disclosed, few claim greater medical interest, particularly in respect to novelty and far-reaching significance, than do the war gases. The effects of chlorin attracted attention because this gas was the first to be employed, in the spring of 1915, in that hideous inhumanity known as gas warfare. The interest in chlorin and some of its later substitutes has been eclipsed by the consideration of the so-called mustard gas, dichlorethylsulphid, which had assumed a rôle of primary importance by the time the armistice was signed.
The distinctly local effects of mustard gas have been repeatedly described. They consist mainly of conjunctivitis and superficial necrosis of the cornea; hyperemia, edema, and later necrosis