In the "Défilé du 8e Chimistes" (Parade of the 8th Chemists), Robida describes chemical warfare 15 years before WW1 would see it deployed on a horrific level:
"On the modern battlefields, these cumbersome instruments [swords] are hardly used. Do we not possess the series of asphyxiating or paralyzing gases, convenient to send by tubes at short distances or by light shells, simple cylinders easily directed 30 or 40 kilometers from our electric guns!"