[CHEMICAL WARFARE] PRENTISS, Augustin

Chemicals in Warfare: A Treatise on Chemical Warfare [Presentation Copy]

New York: McGraw-Hill, 1937. Gift inscription inside front cover to a Major Clifford Sayre "from the junior officers of the B'flo Military District," dated 1941; later inscribed and signed by the author, "With best wishes" on front free endpaper, dated 1945. Third printing. Octavo (24cm). Black cloth boards, titled in gilt on spine; xviii,[1]-739pp; illustrations and diagrams in text; one folding table ("Properties of Chemical Agents").

Major work on the use of chemical agents in warfare, written following the establishment of the Geneva Protocols, yet at a time when Axis powers were known to be stockpiling large quantities of poisons and nerve agents in the lead-up to the Second World War. Brigadier General Augustin Prentiss (1890-1977) was one of the Army's leading experts on chemical warfare, now probably best remembered for the rather shocking statement (made in the current work) that "Chemical warfare is the most humane method of warfare yet devised by man" (Prentiss was surely neither the first nor the last general to confuse the notions of "efficiency" and "humanity"...but still!).

Price: $250.00

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