DEBATES ON PHARMACY BILL. 
35 
of this explosiveness, take a soda-water bottle and put into it about a tablespoonful of 
the spirit, and shake this up for a little while in the bottle, then hold the bottle by the 
bottom in one hand, and with the other apply a light to the mouth. This is a perfectly 
safe experiment, if you hold fast. The writer has repeated it times out of number, 
and all who witness it are surprised at the feebleness of the explosion, and cured of the 
foolish fears which are really the chief source of danger. This should be tried out-of- 
doors, or where there are no combustibles, in case of dropping the bottle. All who deal 
in these spirits should store them out-of-doors, and handle them carefully, but neverthe¬ 
less fearlessly. It is very unsafe to keep it in a cellar, especially if the.cellar is ill 
ventilated, for should any leakage occur in such a place, the vapour may easily accumu¬ 
late so as to make the whole atmosphere of such a cellar an explosive compound. The 
violence of the explosion will be proportionate to the quantity, and therefore very 
different from that of the soda-water bottle. The spirit should be stored in a metal 
tank or cylinder, not in wooden barrels, inasmuch as the liquid saturates the wood, and 
evaporates from the surface. Thus a barrel of spirit is unsafe in a close room, even if 
there is no leakage as commonly understood. In the open air, of course, this vapour 
is dispersed as rapidly as it is formed, and therefore does no mischief. As the spirit is 
imported in barrels of about thirty-four gallons each, and can be purchased most advan¬ 
tageously in these original packages, the shopkeeper should have in liis backyard, or 
other convenient place out-of-doors, one or more metal drums of about thirty-six gallons 
capacity, according to the stock he orders at once. Into these the spirit should be 
emptied immediately it arrives, and the drum immediately closed. The spirit should be 
drawn from a tap for retailing. The pouring of the spirit from the barrel into the drum 
requires especial care, and no light should be brought within many yards at the time, or 
for some two or three hours afterwards. It must be remembered that to fire this spirit 
it is not necessary to bring the light in actual contact with the liquid, as it is the vapour 
which fires, and there is always hovering over the surface of the liquid an explosive 
film of mixed vapour and air. This extends an inch or two in cold weather, and much 
further as the temperature rises. It is this which causes the slight detonation which is 
heard on lighting any quantity of spirit. This may be shown by placing a little in a 
saucer, and bringing a lighted spill or taper gradually towards the surface. We have 
gone thus fully into the properties of this now important article of commerce, on the 
principle that “ forewarned is forearmed,” and from the fact that we have had many in¬ 
quiries as to the “ explosiveness ” of the spirit, and that mischief has already arisen from 
carelessness on the one hand, arising from ignorance of the dangerous properties of the 
liquid, and on the other hand from fright and panic, caused by exaggerated and misap¬ 
plied notions of its explosiveness, the true nature and limits of which we have endea¬ 
voured to explain .—From the 1 Oil Trade Review .’ 
DEBATES IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS ON THE BILL TO REGULATE THE 
SALE OF POISONS, AND ALTER AND AMEND THE PHARMACY ACT 
OF 1852. 
The following discussions occurred as the Bill passed through different stages : — 
On going into Committee on the Bill, on June 15th, 1868, 
Earl Granville said: My Lords,—This Bill was read a second time without anydiscus- 
sion, and I therefore propose to explain its provisions. Some years ago the Lord Chief 
Baron Kelly, when a Member of the House of Commons, introduced a Bill upon this sub¬ 
ject, and thereupon a second Bill was introduced by another honourable Member. Both 
Bills were referred to a Select Committee, and, objections appearing to both of them, 
neither passed a further stage; but the Select Committee passed a resolution that no 
person ought to be allowed to sell poisons who had not been subjected to an examina¬ 
tion by a competent body. The object of this Bill is to carry out the views of that 
Select Committee, and to require that after a certain date all persons shall undergo an 
examination. (The noble lord here read the first clause of the Bill.) The second 
clause refers to a schedule, which sets forth the poisons or articles brought within the 
operation of the Act. It has been suggested that the Bill ought to be made very strin¬ 
gent ; but I fear that there will be extreme difficulty in passing it through Parliament 
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