Citation

Régnier C. Hist. Sci. Med. 2004; 38(2): 177-189.

Vernacular Title

Guerre bactériologique (1916-1933): de l'anecdote à la grande peur.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Les Editions de Médecine Pratique)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

15359477

Abstract

Rotten corpses were occasionally used as weapons in the Antiquity. So wells and springs were usually contaminated. In 1915-1916, just after the use of poison gas on the battlefield, bacteriological suspensions were prepared to destroy men and cattle in Europe, Russia and the United of America but the attempts of using bacteriological weapons remained inefficient. Moreover the evidences of this use during the Great War are very fragile. After the war there was a consensus about inhumanity of this weapon which yet might be used if the enemy did it. Between 1925 and 1933 the debates in the Society of Nations proved that bacteriological war was possible in spite of a compromise solution between some nations. Then English journalist Wickdam Steed disclosed the German tries of bacteriological weapons in the Paris metro and the London tube in 1933 (Was this article a manipulation?).

Language: fr