World War I was known as the "chemist’s war." The use of poison gas by the German forces led the U.S. military to reconsider its decision that science was not needed in warfare. A Chemical Warfare Service brought together scientists from around the nation to develop gas masks and antidotes to gas attacks. After the war, Dr. Charles Holmes Herty, who had been president of the American Chemical Society during the war, proposed the creation of an "Institute for Chemotherapeutic Research," to bring the benefits of chemical research to medicine. By 1926 he and his associates despaired of finding a private patron for this institute, and Herty joined with Louisiana Senator Joseph Ransdell to seek legislation for federal funding. Four years later, in May 1930, the ambitious original plan for $15 million had been cut back in accordance with economic depression to $750,000 for one building. No new institute was created, but the existing Hygienic Laboratory was renamed "National Institute of Health," which Ransdell thought was a more appealing name. The Ransdell Act also provided that the NIH could accept donations to fund fellows training in chemical research.