Bennett XI 
ORGANIZATION 
of 
CHEMICAL WARFARE COURSES 
by- 
Granville A. Bennett, M.D. 
Surgeon (R), USFHS 
Acting Medical Gas Officer, CCD, Washington, D.C. 
Now being passed out are some outlines* that we would like to have 
you use in arranging your courses for physicians when you return 
home, Etefore discussing this outline in any detail, I would like 
to say a few words about the entire educational program that has 
been planned and which is now being carried on in Regions 6 and ?• 
In the early days of the War Emergency, instruction in the medical 
aspects of chemical warfare was carried out in a rather haphazard 
fashion and a good deal of time was wasted by not having a planned 
program of instruction. Last February an attempt was made by the 
Office of Civilian Defense to standardize a training program for 
physicians, A course was offered at the University of Cincinnati, 
Physicians from the Atlantic Seaboard States were invited to 
attend. Those of us who went to that course returned to our 
respective states and organized courses of instruction for local 
physicians. During the spring and early summer an attempt was 
made, chiefly through the efforts of Dr. Rutstein, to assemble 
the most suitable methods of instruction and the most useful types 
of material for use in subsequent courses. It seemed advisable 
to invite the participation of the medical school faculties in 
carrying on this teaching program. As a result, the present type 
of school was developed to train physician instructors. The 
present school is the sixth of its kind. Previous courses were 
given at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Edgewood 
Arsenal, and at the University of Cincinnati Medical School, 
It is not intended that the medical schools should have responsi- 
bilities beyond the furnishing of teaching personnel to carry 
out the necessary instruction of physicians in their respective 
States and communities. The State Chiefs and their staffs of 
the Emergency Medical Service will be asked to organize the 
necessary schools in their States, They will designate txhe 
physicians that are to be required to attend. The State, county 
and local medical societies will be invited to cooperate to the 
extent of giving appropriate notice of the scheduled courses in 
their journals, preferably with editorial comment regarding the 
objectives and importance of such training. The National and 
Regional Officers of the Office of Civilian Defense will provide 
Outline: Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfare, Emergency 
Medical Services, Office of Civilian Defense, 
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the materials that are needed for your courses and will aid in 
every way possible in making the necessary arrangements. 
This course outline that we have given out is intended to serve 
as guide to a six-hour course. Such an abbreviated course of 
instruction is obviously a compromise between an inclusive, well- 
rounded program such as you are receiving here in three full days 
and one occupying the amount of time that the average physician 
will be able to devote to such training. 
It should be possible, with the use of this outline, to arrange 
two types of schools: (l) a course to be presented in three 
sessions of two hours each; (2) a one day course lasting through 
an afternoon and evening. In those areas where the courses will 
be given for a group of communities away from your medical schools, 
it will probably be advisable to arrange the latter type of course. 
Following an afternoon session of four hours, you might care to 
arrange an informal get together, perhaps a dinner and discussion, 
and then complete the course that evening or the following morning. 
It is recommended that you men, upon returning to your schools, 
should enlarge your teaching staff as much as you think is 
necessary. Perhaps you will wish to add a chemist, a physiologist 
or a pathologistc Certain portions of this six-hour outline can 
be assigned to these teachers and you can provide them with the 
necessary literature. If possible, we should then like to have 
you offer a course to your entire faculty and third and fourth 
year students. This has been done in most of the schools pre- 
viously established in the East, Such courses can be offered 
either as part of the medical school curriculum or as evening 
exercises in one or two hour sessions. 
Following the course of instruction within your own schools, it 
is recommended that you cooperate with the State Chief of the 
Emergency Medical Service in arranging other schools in strategic 
areas throughout your State, In States where there are two or 
more medical schools it may be desirable to combine your faculties 
and to make up two or more mixed teaching staffs, or it may be 
advisable to maintain single teams from each school. 
In any case, it should not be too great an undertaking for the 
medical school faculties to teach the number of courses that a 
given State may require. 
The materials for use in such a teaching program will be furnished 
to you by the Office of Civilian Defense, either directly from the 
office in Washington, D.C., or through your State Chief of Emer- 
gency Medical Service by way of the Regional Office, Literature 
such as we have issued here and gas masks will be available for 
your schools. Such material has, in the past, been made available 
by direct shipment from Washington to one representative of each 
of the medical schools. 
M-7858 Rnnnpf.t. XT 
You have in your folders a list of publications (bibliography) 
from which you can obtain more detailed information than your 
lecture notes will contain. Some of these books, monographs, 
and pamphlets will contain illustrations that you may wish to 
have reproduced in the form of lantern slides. The cost of 
lantern slide preparations has been borne, in some States, by the 
Defense Councils, Warthin and v/eller's book on mustard poisoning 
and Winternitz1 book are good sources from which lantern slide 
illustrations can be copied. 
Now as to personnel that should attend the courses that you will 
be asked to teach. The responsibility for the attendance of the 
appropriate number of physicians rests with the State and Local 
Chiefs of Emergency Medical Service, In addition to such physi- 
cians as may be asked to attend your schools, there will doubtless 
be many doctors who will -wish to attend in order that they will be 
better prepared to handle chemical casualties should chemical 
warfare agents ever be used. 
It is quite obvious that the need for these schools will vary 
from State to State and from community to community within a State. 
For this reason the State Defense Council will be asked to arrange 
the number of courses that will provide adequate coverage of the 
communities within their State, 
This program for the instruction of physicians is going along 
parallel with the courses of instruction for the gas officers 
such as Mr. Cary mentioned to you yesterday. War Department 
Civilian Protection Schools have been established in several 
Regions, These schools provide courses for the training of non- 
medical gas officers of several categories. As you will see in 
the exercises scheduled for tomorrow morning, the actual problem 
related to decontamination and gas cleansing will have to be 
dealt with by the local community gas defense organization. It 
is therefore important that the total teaching program should 
have as its final objective, the training of suitable medical and 
nonmedical personnel to organize a workable local gas defense. 
As Mr. Cary explained to you yesterday morning, the Senior Gas 
Officer is the person in each community who will have the greater 
responsibility in the establishment of the program. Physicians 
should look to him for advice and should cooperate with him fully. 
However, the physician is going to be occupied chiefly with the 
management of injured and gassed casualties and with arrangements 
for the proper cleansing of contaminated persons. When you have 
seen the enactment of the process of gas cleansing that will be 
illustrated for you tomorrow, I think you will appreciate that 
the responsibility for the cleansing of persons is a very large 
one. 
Let us now turn to the short course outline we have passed out 
to you. It should not be necessary to go through the outline in 
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any great detail since it follows quite closely the pattern of the 
course that, you are attending here. There are a few errors that I 
will ask you to mark on your copies. 
Among the pamphlets that were given out to yrou is one entitled 
"How to Protect Yourself Against Gas,” Operations Letter No, 46, 
This communication describes in the simplest terms possible the 
steps in the personal cleaning that have been recommended for 
the use of individuals who are gassed but otherwise uninjured. 
Considerable attention should be given to the contents of this 
directive in your courses of instruction* 
Item IV on page 12 of your outline ’’Improvised Protective 
Clothing” should also be stressed in your teaching because it is 
Uhlikely that the average person will be supplied with protective 
clothing* 
Considerable emphtsit Should be placed on these home treatments, 
’’Self Aid and First Aid” ahd on improvised protective measures 
when these courses are taught to physiciahs .from the local 
communities. 
Are there any questions? 
QUESTION; On page 12 it speaks of protective clothing and lists 
rubber sheeting and other rubber material. We understood that 
rubber gloves are not very satisfactory for mustard gas, 
DR. BENNETT: It is true that surgical rubber gloves are not 
satisfactory for any long period of time. They will, however,' 
give temporary protection. For the handling of liquid mustard, 
the heavy acid proof rubber gloves, used over treated cotton 
gloves, are recommended. Light-weight gloves will, however, give 
protection for short periods of time, particularly if the hands 
are dipped in hypochlorite solution or dichloramine-T from time 
to time. Rubber aprons also give some protection, especially in 
the cleansing room of a cleansing station where the concentrations 
of gas should not be high, 
QUESTION r Has there been any emphasis laid on the subsequent 
handling of material that has been contaminated, rubber aprons 
for instance, that have been contaminated? 
DR. BENNETT; When improvised clothing has been used in order to 
procure some protection in an emergency, it is likely that such 
materials will have to be destroyed. It is well to bear in mind 
that waterproof cellophane constitutes a very good type of 
improvised protective clothing. Bags can be made out of it to 
cover the arms and hands. Aprons can also be improvised. Where 
there is to be continuous operation of a hospital cleansing 
station, it will be necessary to have impregnated gloves and 
M-7858 Bennett XI 
acid proof rubber gloves and complete protective suits in order 
to provide adequate protection. Temporary protection could, 
however, be obtained by using improvised materials, 
QUESTION: If this course is to be established, is it to be the 
local assistant’s job to take the initiative, or is that the 
function of the university or the State Medical Service? 
DR. BENNETT: These teaching programs should be organized by the 
Emergency Medical Chief, after consulting with the teaching 
personnel from the medical schools. The State Chief can make the 
necessary arrangements with the officers of the State and county 
medical societies. An advantage to be had by conferring with the 
editors of the medical journals is that through them you can bring 
the proper notices of your meetings to the attention of all local 
physicians and possibly have suitable editorials written calling 
attention to the importance of the schools, 
I have neglected to cover one objective we have in mind in this 
type of training for physicians. The information you will have 
access to for your present courses will lay a foundation for the 
medical management of gas casualties. If chemical agents should 
be used upon our civil populations in this war, there will doubt- 
less bo considerable new information concerning treatment of 
those cases that will need to be disseminated quickly and accurately. 
Such schools as the ones now being set up will provide an appropriate 
channel for the release of such information. 
M-7858