The French Biological Weapons Program - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 112

lack of information on the designated means and objectives, a two-stage
process: first, to draft a precise description of the situation, of work previ-
ously undertaken and results obtained; and second, to establish a BW
study program.
In anticipation of the establishment of the commission, two meetings
of the Commission Médicale de Défense contre la Guerre Moderne de-
voted specifically to germ warfare were held on 17 and 25 April 1947. 9 A
21-point program of study was adopted at the 25 April meeting. Many of
the topics discussed dealt with the danger of aerial transmission of mi-
crobes and their toxins. On the basis of a model of the situation as it ex-
isted before the war, the document advocated the creation of a special
laboratory within the Services des Poudres to study means of attack.
This research, it was suggested, would take place at the Bouchet facility.
The program would continue work undertaken before 1940 on microbial
aerosols (analysis and determination of particular size, spontaneous and
induced flocculation). These studies would be led by the CEB. The docu-
ment recommended that microbial toxin aerosol dispersion trials begin in
February 1948.
Simultaneously, the military intelligence agencies were responsible for
gathering information on biological warfare from their military attachés
on the ground. 10 The fruits of this mission between 1946 and 1949 are to
be found in the archives of the Service Historique de l'Armée de Terre
in Vincennes. 11 The file contains few classified documents, being more
of a compilation of open source material (witness statements from the
Nuremberg trials describing German activities, nonclassified American
sources, and Allied military sources detailing the program in Japan) than
a true intelligence mission. In the same way, the first studies at the STA
laboratories were undertaken “in accordance with a very reduced and
specific program as indicated a priori by the areas of study that appear to
be the most profitable.” 12
Costedoat, the surgeon general, was responsible for drawing up a list of
the work undertaken before 1940 by the CEB and, more specifically, the
prophylaxis laboratories of Veterinary Colonel Velu. The list features in
the report written by Costedoat in 1953 and sheds light on the progress of
the French military biological program between the two world wars:
• Trials on the infection of guinea pigs by spore-carrying projectiles: the
trials showed that fine metallic particles (a waste product from the man-