DYNAMITE. 
367 
The experiments of Dr. Kemmerich are described in his 1 Dissertatio Inauguralis,’ for 
obtaining the degree of Doctor from the medical faculty at Bonn ; and in his connecting 
with his conclusions the meaning of the word “ poison,” he in fact succeeded in drawing 
to his work the attention of the public, which otherwise would probably have taken 
little notice of it. 
Dr. Kemmerich ascribes the effect of beef-tea not to its aromatic and combustible in¬ 
gredients, but to the potash salts which it contains, and of which it is well known that 
in larger doses they exercise an injurious effect on the organism ; nevertheless, and this 
is a matter of great importance, potash salts are an element of all articles of food; they 
not only form the chief ingredients of the salts of all sorts of flesh, including the flesh of 
fish, but likewise of all other food, and of all the food of animals. The alkaliue salts of 
bread, vegetables, and hay consist of potash salts, and, with the exception of chloride of 
sodium (kitchen salt), soda salts are but rarely contained therein ; in fact, it may safely 
be asserted that without the potash salts our food would be quite unfit for nourishment. 
It does not follow, therefore, that these salts, when taken in excess, like any other— 
even the most harmless substance—might not eventually exercise an injurious effect. 
It is, however, preposterous to apply the meaning which we are accustomed to attach 
to the word “poison ” to the effects of such an excess. It is surely quite absurd to con¬ 
nect this meaning with substances which we daily take in our food, and which are quite 
indispensable to our existence. 
Dr. Kemmerich himself says (p. 31), “I do not think of the possibility that beef-tea, 
in the form in which it is used for household purposes, could be the cause of poisoning; 
it therefore does not require a medical warning to protect from poisoning w'ith Liebig's 
extract of meat.” He further says, “ In medical practice, wine, ether, camphor and 
musk are eminent analeptica (invigorating and refreshing remedies). Compared to these 
giants of medicine, beef-tea modestly occupies a subordinate position. If, however, it 
be necessary to preserve the exhausted body from protracted illness, then there is no 
other remedy in the whole rich store of medicine which can afford such assistance for 
regenerating the diseased organism as repeated doses of beef-tea.” 
One of the three theses defended by Dr. Kemmerich, on his promotion before the 
medical faculty at Bonn, is worthy of observation by the British navy. It runs thus :— 
Thesis 2. “ The best remedy against scurvy is beef-tea, or Liebig’s extract of meat.” 
Munich, November , 1868. 
DYNAMITE.* 
BY M. NOBEL. 
Scientific and other papers have lately given much attention to a new blasting agent 
named “dynamite.” It is nothing but nitro-glycerine absorbed in highly porous silica, 
and if I have given it a new name it is certainly not by way of disguise ; but its ex¬ 
plosive properties are so much altered as fully to warrant a new denomination. 
Dynamite consists of 75 per cent, of nitro-glycerine and 25 per cent, of porous silica. 
Hence it appears to possess only f of the power of nitro-glycerine, the specific gravity 
of both substances being very nearly the same. But, practically, there is no advantage 
in the greater concentration of power of nitro-glycerine. It cannot, or at least ought 
not, to be poured direct into the borehole, since it easily causes accidents by leaking into 
crevices, where it explodes under the miner’s tools. It must, therefore, be used in cart¬ 
ridges, which leave considerable windage; whereas dynamite, being somewhat pasty, 
easily yields to the slightest pressure, so as completely to fill up the sides of the bore¬ 
hole, and leave no windage whatever. For this reason a given height of dynamite charge 
iu a hole will contain quite as much nitro-glycerine as when the latter is used in its pure 
liquid state. 
It is necessary, even at the risk of some lengthiness, to make this point clearly under¬ 
stood ; for if the advantages otherwise derived from the transformation of nitro-glycerine 
into dynamite were obtained at the expense of a great depreciation of its power, the 
substitute might be a safe but not a useful one. 
*■ Paper read before the British Association at Norwich. 
