You are being provided with a book chapter by chapter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chapter. After reading the chapter, 1. shorten the chapter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any important nouns in the chapter. 3. Do not translate the original language. 4. Keep the same style as the original chapter, keep it consistent throughout the chapter. Your reply must comply with all four requirements, or it’s invalid.
I will provide the chapter now.

PLAGUED CORPSES, GREEK FIRE, AND MUSTARD GAS
 
            Chemical and biological weapons have probably existed since the
Pre-historic Era in one form or another. Poisoning an enemy’s water
supply is an early example.
 
            It’s believed Mongol armies brought the Black Death into Europe
when they besieged the Genoese trading city of Kaffa on the Black
Sea in 1347. The Mongols catapulted infected corpses into the city,
spreading the disease.
 
       Lewisite was a chemical weapon developed by the US government in
1917 for World War I. The war ended before any was used.
 
            The Carthaginians reportedly catapulted pots filled with venomous
snakes onto the ships of the Pergamon navy during a battle in 184
BCE.
 
            The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) is a treaty signed in
1972 that went into effect in 1975 prohibiting the production and use
of biological weapons. Who has not signed the BWC? Ten states have
neither signed nor ratified the BWC (Chad, Comoros, Djibouti,
Eritrea, Israel, Kiribati, Micronesia, Namibia, South Sudan, and
Tuvalu). The BWC opened for signature on April 10, 1972 and
entered into force on March 26, 1975.
 
       The first large-scale use of a chemical weapon on the battlefield took
place on April 22, 1915, at the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium.
The Germans dispersed chlorine gas on the French, creating a
temporary salient.
 
            The Sassanian Persians defeated the Romans at the Siege of Dura-
Europos in CE 256 through chemical warfare. The Persians dug
tunnels under the city and ignited sulfur dioxide when the Romans
attempted to enter one of the tunnels.
 
            Scythian archers reportedly dipped their arrow heads in snake
venom, rotting flesh, feces, or a combination of these. Their
effectiveness is unknown.
 
            The Chemical Weapons Convention  (CWC), which was signed in
1993 and went into effect in 1997, bans the production and use of
chemical weapons. Only four countries have not ratified the
agreement.
 
       Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland was the headquarters of the US
biological weapons program from 1943 to 1969. After the BWC, it
served as a center for “biological defense.”
 
            Greek Fire was an incendiary, napalm-like weapon used by the
Byzantine Empire from 672 to 1453. The ingredients and process to
make Greek Fire remain a mystery.
 
            In World War I, the German troops that used the gas/chemical
weapons were the Pioneer Regiment 35, while the French equivalent
was called the Z Companies.
 
            The 2001 anthrax attacks took place in the US from September 18,
2001, to October 12, 2001. The deadly bacteria were mailed to
targets, killing five people.
 
       Smoke was routinely used in warfare by pre-modern militaries. The
Taino Indians of the Caribbean used smoke bombs against the
Spanish in the 1500s.
 
            Chlorine and phosgene were chemical weapons that affect the
respiratory tract. Phosgene was six times more deadly than chlorine
and accounted for 85% of all chemical weapons deaths in World War
I.
 
            Israel is not a signatory of the BWC. The nation is suspected of
having a biological weapons program but has never publicly
acknowledged it.
 
       Although the British possibly gave smallpox infected blankets to the
Delaware Indians during the Siege of Fort Pitt in 1763, there are no
other historical accounts of “smallpox” blankets. 
 
       The Vietcong traps known as “punji sticks” were deadly enough, but
they were often made deadlier when the VC guerillas tipped the
sharpened sticks with plant poison, feces, or urine.
 
            Chemical weapons could be delivered two ways in World War I:
canisters or shells. Canisters required stealth and favorable wind,
while chemical shells required special cannons.
 
            Operation Ranch Hand was the codename of the US military’s
campaign to defoliate large areas of Vietnam from 1962 to 1971 using
the chemical Agent Orange. It was a mixture of two deadly and
dangerous herbicides.
 
            Mustard gas, or sulfur mustard, is a vesicant that burns the skin. It
was first deployed on the battlefield in 1917 during World War I by
the Germans.
 
            Napalm is simply the mixture of a flammable liquid and a gelling
agent. The napalm used in most modern militaries is “napalm B.”
 
            Egypt, South Sudan, and North Korea have not signed the CWC.
Israel has signed but not ratified it, leading many to believe it has a
chemical weapons program.
 
       The Hittites may have driven plague victims into enemy territory in
the Levant in 1,324 BCE. Hittite King Suppiluliuma died from the
same plague when infected Hittite soldiers returned.