Medicine: Chlorine

Some months ago, when two chemical warriors of the U. S. Chemical Warfare Service—Lieutenant Colonel Edward B. Vedder and Captain Harold P. Sawyer—reported that they had met with great success administering chlorine gas as treatment for respiratory diseases, there was general rejoicing. It was hoped that properly regulated whiffing of pungent, biting, acrid, yellowish fumes of nascent chlorine might one day rid man of all his breathing diseases, from plain “sniffles” on up through asthma and whooping cough to consumption. But such hope was dampened, last week, by a report from Dr. Louis I. Harris of the Health Department of New York City. Impressed by the news of Messrs. Vedder and Sawyer, the Department had opened chlorine clinics last June, had run them until August. Said Dr. Harris, who had charge of the clinics: “Our experience in treating 13 individuals who had asthma gave us cause for alarm in at least two instances, . . . determined our exclusion of cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. “Whereas Vedder and Sawyer reported 71.4% of their 931 patients cured, we found only 6.5% of our 506 patients cured. We cannot attach much importance to the 53% of cases that reported improvement. “Until, and unless, others can properly verify the claims of Vedder and Sawyer, we are constrained by our experience to refuse endorsement.”