Poison gas and thefirst World War: key role ofpharmacists

Poison gas has been the subject of attention from the French army (Grand Quartier General). The 22sd of April 1915, General Joffre decided that the General Direction for Health Service was in charge of the protection of troops against what he called "this new mode of terror, disease, and death". Actions are been launched to found ways for the protection means and to obtain for the army at least equivalent weapons. Pharmacists will have a leading role thanks to their knowledge in chemistry. Research laboratories were working in two areas: individual protection and production of aggressive agents. Paul Lebeau, Gabriel Bertrand, Alexandre Degrez, Charles Moureu were among many others very committed to fight and remains at the top and to react quickly to ennemy's attacks. At the end of the war, Paul Lebeau received the Legion d'Honneur medal for his contribution to war. The school of pharmacy was recognized as faculty of pharmacy, by a decree of May 14th, 1920. The knowledge that were obtained during this period will be used for the second World War, but the chemical weapon was not much used, as opposed to more recent usage in Vietnam, Irak and Syria.