# Doctor who knows about poisonous gasses? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 3, 2015, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-knows-about-poisonous-gasses/724131 "2015-07-03T12:05:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![paste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@paste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paste)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-knows-about-poisonous-gasses/724131/1 "2015-07-03T12:05:45Z")
Hi guys! I’m going to write a short story. I’m just wondering, what kind of Doctor who knows something about poisonous gasses like carbon monoxide, mustard gas (during World War 1), etc. Thank you very much! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-knows-about-poisonous-gasses/724131/2 "2015-07-03T13:21:09Z")
Pretty much everyone near the front line in WW1 - and plenty behind - knew about gasses. Doctors were right up there treating them. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-knows-about-poisonous-gasses/724131/3 "2015-07-03T13:27:56Z")
The Doctor. 🙂 Weren’t there some other minor conflicts preWWI that had experimeted with poison gasses? So, a medic in one of those armies? WAG, sorry ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-knows-about-poisonous-gasses/724131/4 "2015-07-03T13:28:36Z")
Maybe a pathologist? They ought to know about things that are lethal for humans. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-knows-about-poisonous-gasses/724131/5 "2015-07-03T14:20:08Z")
There was at least one episode of Doctor Who that dealt with poison gas. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-knows-about-poisonous-gasses/724131/6 "2015-07-03T14:24:11Z")
Two posts above! :mad: 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-knows-about-poisonous-gasses/724131/7 "2015-07-03T14:28:29Z")
Yes, he does. 😛 If you want a contemporary physician who would know about the agents typically used in WW1, a medical consultant to an industrial chemical corporation might be one idea. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-knows-about-poisonous-gasses/724131/8 "2015-07-03T16:52:22Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > Maybe a pathologist? They ought to know about things that are lethal for humans. Heh. But I’d go with a toxicologist. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-knows-about-poisonous-gasses/724131/9 "2015-07-03T17:12:16Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > Weren’t there some other minor conflicts preWWI that had experimeted with poison gasses? So, a medic in one of those armies? There were proposals to use chemical weapons during the Crimean War and the U.S. Civil War, but they were never implemented. I’d be interested to know if there were any instances where “modern” chemical weapons were deployed before 1914. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-knows-about-poisonous-gasses/724131/10 "2015-07-03T17:26:39Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > There were proposals to use chemical weapons during the Crimean War and the U.S. Civil War, but they were never implemented. I’d be interested to know if there were any instances where “modern” chemical weapons were deployed before 1914. Maybe not exactly _modern,_ but see Psalm 14. (See also Psalm 53; they appear to be identical or nearly so.) At least according to [this imaginative translation](http://www.biblestudytools.com/msg/psalms/14.html): > [@](#): > > **1** Bilious and bloated, they gas, “God is gone.” Their words are poison gas, fouling the air; they poison Rivers and skies; thistles are their cash crop. > **2** God sticks his head out of heaven. He looks around. He’s looking for someone not stupid - one man, even, God-expectant, just one God-ready woman. > **3** He comes up empty. . . . (More traditional rendition [here. (KJV)](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+14&version=KJV).) (ETA: Now, I just gotta look that up in the Lolcat Bible and see how they put it.)