#Liquid war background skin#
#Liquid war background full#

The inspiration for chemotherapy did not come from Bari. On this point, Conant has to labour to connect the dots. AlexanderвЂ™s detailed report of his findings in Bari, initially classified but circulated among some military researchers, spurred efforts to find a chemical treatment for cancer. Flood the body with toxic substances, the theory went, and the disease could be snuffed out or at least beaten back. These had conjured up hopes that the chemicals could be used to rein in cancerous blood cells in leukaemia and lymphoma. (There are uncomfortable parallels with the flurry of uninterpretable observational studies and uncontrolled clinical trials during the first months of the COVIDвЂ‘19 pandemic.)ДЄlexander had seen similar effects of such agents in animal studies before the war. He scrambles to make sense of data from different treatments given in different hospitals, with different standards of care and no control groups. Alexander struggles to treat his ailing patients while battling military officials who are intent on keeping the incident quiet.ДЄlexander is struck by how the mustardвЂ“oil mixture obliterated his patientsвЂ™ white blood cells. The Geneva Protocol had banned the use of chemical warfare in 1925, but the shipment was there in case of the need to retaliate if Hitler had resorted to chemical weapons. The deadly cargo in BariвЂ™s harbour was a fiercely guarded secret. Could it have been chlorine or mustard, the causes of the chemical massacres of the First World War? Or was it lewisite, a blistering agent that quickly penetrated the skin? Or one of the new blends such as вЂWinterlostвЂ™, a combination of nitrogen mustard and lewisite that featured a low freezing point to ensure effectiveness at the frigid Russian front? Chemical secret

The possibilities offer a harrowing tour through the chemical arms race of the early twentieth century. Stewart Alexander, an American expert on chemical weapons, is called in to explain the mysterious ailments plaguing the Bari survivors. That hard-working and brilliant physician is the first of the bookвЂ™s two heroes. His efforts contributed to the development of chemotherapy, seeding the cancer-research juggernaut that dominates drug discovery to this day, argues writer Jennet Conant in her latest history of war-era science. The Great Secret brings that harrowing night to life, and then follows the military physician who fought to uncover the truth about the chemical weapons.

#Liquid war background full#

Stunned nurses found themselves with wards full of swollen, blistered patients, temporarily blinded. Many who made it to the local hospital were greeted with blankets to wrap around their poison-soaked clothing, sealing their fate as they awaited care.

#Liquid war background skin#

The gas - which was actually in liquid form - mixed with oil from the sinking tankers to create a deadly slick that clung to sailorsвЂ™ skin as they swam to safety. One was carrying 2,000 bombs loaded with deadly mustard gas. The onslaught cost at least 1,000 lives and sunk 17 ships. On 2 December 1943, German forces attacked the Italian port town of Bari. The Great Secret: The Classified World War II Disaster that Launched the War on Cancer Jennet Conant W. Rescuers work sift through the debris left by the explosion of a munitions ship in Bari harbour, Italy, in 1945.