The nostrils are kept closed with a clip so breathing must be done
through the mouth and no air can be inhaled except that passing through
the absorbent cylinder. Men within five miles of the front were required
to wear the masks slung on their chests so they could be put on within
six seconds. A well-made mask with a fresh box afforded almost complete
immunity for a time and the soldiers learned within a few days to
handle their masks adroitly. So the problem of defense against this new
offensive was solved satisfactorily, while no such adequate protection
against the older weapons of bayonet and shrapnel has yet been devised.
Then the problem of the offense was to catch the opponent with his
mask off or to make him take it off. Here the lachrymators and
the sternutators, the tear gases and the sneeze gases, came into
play. Phenylcarbylamine chloride would make the bravest soldier
weep on the battlefield with the abandonment of a Greek hero.
Di-phenyl-chloro-arsine would set him sneezing. The Germans alternated
these with diabolical ingenuity so as to catch us unawares.
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