Word: blistering
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...gases are classified as 1) lacrimators (tear-gas); 2) systemic toxic agents (blood poisons); 3) lung injurants; 4) respiratory irritants; 5) vesicants (blister-producers). As War gases the first two are the least destructive. Tear-gases have some value because very low concentrations force masking, with attendant loss of efficiency and morale; 6,000 tons of lacrimators were used throughout...
Vesicants are blister-producers. Mustard gas, which is really an oily liquid, was called "the king of battle gases" although it was seldom fatal unless its vapor was inhaled. Masks were of little use, since mustard gas penetrated ordinary clothing and shoes easily, raising huge red welts which sometimes ulcerated and always laid the soldier low for a month or more. When splashed around by shells it contaminates everything it touches for days. It is therefore more valuable for defense than offense, since it is impracticable for attackers to move forward through a mustard-shelled area. Mustard was not introduced...
Mustard was far & away the most important vesicant in the European arena. In 1918, however, the U. S. was manufacturing a powerful blister-liquid called Lewisite, none of which reached the front. Because of its arsenic content, Lewisite may poison the blisters it produces. Author Prentiss declares that 30 drops of Lewisite splashed on a man's skin would be fatal. It is more volatile and less persistent than mustard gas, however, and if no arsenic poison sets in, its wounds heal more quickly. Author Prentiss believes that under favorable" conditions Lewisite would prove superior to mustard. British experts...
...giants have trouble with their feet. Robert Wadlow has no sensations of touch, pain or temperature in his feet. Says Dr. Humberd: "He is unaware of a wrinkle in his sock or a foreign body in his shoe until a blister, followed by an ulcer, is formed." His ears are oversize, his heart in proper proportion, genitalia small but normal...
This week the rest of the Commission's trip (see map) takes it north to view regions even more desolate than the Southwest's Dust Bowl, the blister that covers parts of the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming. Later they will meet the President in South Dakota, make a preliminary report...