288 
Explosives. 
:May, 
be required for the other. Yet fulminating gold and ful- 
minate of mercury need only a very minute quantity to 
produce a frightful explosion ; nitro-glycerine, as we have 
lately too well known, requires but a small quantity, and 
would be covered by this Sedtion 4. On the other hand, 
since the introduction of the immense modern cannon, it is 
necessary to make powder with very large grain ; the 
“ pebble-powder ” now in use is larger in grain than hazel- 
nuts, and an experiment for its composition, though not 
manageable with “ a small quantity,” would yet be within 
the ipsissima verba of the Section as “ a chemical experi- 
ment.” Or such a thing as the new Russian war-powder, 
so different in composition from our “ Waltham,” will pro- 
bably give rise to many “ chemical experiments so, too, 
dynamite and gun-cotton, and other less known compounds. 
The moral from all this is that the exemptions clause of 
the Adt, with its indefinite term “ a small quantity,” and the 
misapprehension of which that is capable, should be re- 
placed, possibly, by some measure of weight, or bulk, or 
volume, and that so indeterminate a phrase as “ chemical 
experiment ” should be narrowed by interposing at least the 
word “ laboratory.” 
Perhaps still better would it be that no exemption be 
allowed, but a license required in all cases. It is more and 
more evident that the words “ for pradtical use or for sale ” 
do not reach the requisite restriction, especially at a time 
when England is charged with harbouring a certain class of 
explosives experimentizers. 
It would have, however, to be fully considered whether 
these indefinite exemptions of the ACt are not even yet pre- 
ferable to a scale of measurement, which might be either too 
large for public safety or too small for any useful purpose. 
In other words, whether definition may not be inexpedient, 
and every case should be determined on its own merits by 
the evidence of experts. If it would be unreasonable to 
fetter chemical students, preparing for examination, with the 
necessity of a license, it would be worse, and it would be 
dangerous, to absolve the inventors of new projectiles from 
its safeguard. 
