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The first real use of nerve agents was during World war one on April 22, 1915. During the battle of Ypres, the Germans utilised nerve agents for the first time ever for war purposes. They unleashed a deadly new gas called "chlorine gas" (CL2) on the British and French in a trail run. It was estimated that this new blistering agent cost over 5000 lives. In retaliation to this attack the allies experimented with their own chemical and biological weapons. They came up with a new more lethal form of chlorine gas, "Mustard Gas". Mustard gas consists mainly of chlorine in a gaseous form, when contact is made with a victim's body or it is inhaled, it returns back to into its liquid form, "Hydrochloric acid". The result is an extremely bad blistering and reddening of the skin and if inhaled will do the same damage to the lungs, internal and external bleeding were results of this. Because Mustard gas dissolves easily in water, moist parts of the body are the worst affected. The eyes are particularly susceptible, and the gas burns the corneas of the eyes leaving the victim blind. It usually took around 5 to 6 weeks to die, during which time the pain was excruciating. The sufferer would often have to be strapped to the bed, and complain in tiny whispers that their throats were melting inwards and they knew they would die. As you can evidently see hydrochloric acid (Hcl) can clearly be derived from this. During world war one it is believed that poison gas was responsible for over 900,000 injuries and 100,000 deaths. During the period in between world war one and two Sarin gas had been invented but its chemical formula had yet to be released to the world. The use of chemical and biological weapons during world war one clearly unnerved the scientific world. The Geneva protocol was set up to prohibit the use of any such weapons again; it did not however ban the production of such weapons. Countries began to produce many different varieties of chemical gases, especially during world war two.
