Abstract
1.1-bis-(4 chlorophenyl)-2.2.2.-trichloroethane, produced in Switzerland in the early years of the War, was the first synthetic contact insecticide which could in efficiency and cost the, vegetable product pyrethrum and derris. Information about it reached Great Britain and the United States at a tim# when the world shortage of pyrethrum, combined with increasing demands from the armies of the United Nations, was causing great anxiety among those responsible for military hygiene. On both sides of the Atlantic official committees of experts were convened to advise and to co-ordinate research. In Great Britain most of these activities were centred in the Insecticides Development Panel of the Ministry of Production under the chairmanship of Sir Ian Heilbron. The work of these committees largely resolved itself into the development of applications of D.D.T. for the special purposes of controlling mosquitoes, flies, lice and other insects of military importance. The results of investigations and trials were circulated in numerous reports produced in Britain, the Dominions and the United States, and freely interchanged. Many of the reports were at the time marked ‘Secret’ or ‘Confidential’ and the information appearing in the popular press was apt to be highly coloured or inaccurate. Some of these reports have since been published; but the main results, both published and unpublished, have now been brought together in the form of a pamphlet issued by the Ministry of Supply, entitled “Some Properties and Applications of D.D.T.” (London: H.M. Stationery Office. 6d. net). This pamphlet includes a brief summary of some of the agricultural and horticultural uses of D.D.T.
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D.D.T. Nature 158, 126 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/158126a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/158126a0