ons, the manner in which they are delivered to the target area must also be different than conventional weapons. The first recorded use a chemical weapon in a war was in 600 BC. When Solon, the legislator of the Athenians, contaminated the River Pleisthenes with hellebores (skunk cabbage) to give the defenders of Kirrha violent diarrhea leading to their defeat (Nicholas). Chemical weapon use peaked during the first World War, when mustard gas was a devastatingly effective battlefield weapon being thrown into a targeted area with artillery shells and grenades. This method of delivery however is quite problematic, for it to work, the offensive force must be in relatively close quarters to the enemy. This can lead to a counterattack or preemptive strike, and then factors such as the weather must be taken into consideration when using many chemical weapons, if it is a rainy or foggy day, the chemical agent will not spread effectively, and if the winds change, its possible that the attack could backfire on the assaulting force. The first recorded uses of biological weapons were during the medieval times, when cadavers were catapulted over castle and fortress walls, or placed in streams that supplied the victims population. Disease would soon spread unchecked amongst the targeted population (Nicholas). Again, the method of delivery was inefficient, because of problems such as; the assaulting force infecting itself with disease, and again the proximity to the enemy. Today, biological weapons are transported in canisters that hold the virii and germs, rather than in corpses, and the capabilities of current biological weapons are incredible, from the amount of time it takes to spread, to the length of time it takes for the disease to run its course and complete the task it was designed to. Chemical and biological weapons have not been used in any major conflict since the first World War. One reason for this is the horrifying brutality and effici...
