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THE PETROLEUM ACTS 1862, 1868. 
In the last Session of Parliament an Act was passed, after much controversy 
with reference to its details, which led to its being greatly modified as compared 
with the form in which it was first introduced ; and the short title of this Act 
is, “ The Petroleum Act, 1868.” Its object is to amend an Act having a similar 
title which was passed in 1862. Part of the Act of 1862 has been repealed by 
the Act of 1868, but with this exception the two Acts are to be read as one, 
and they have jointly come into operation in the present month (1st February, 
1869). The principal object of these Acts is to provide for the safe-keeping of 
petroleum. In the Act of 1862, petroleum, for the purposes of the Act, was 
defined to be, petroleum or any product thereof that gives off an inflammable va¬ 
pour at a temperature of less than 100° F. By the Act of 1868 this definition 
has been enlarged, so that now, “ Petroleum shall include all such rock oil, Ran¬ 
goon oil , Burmah oil, any product of them , and any oil made from petroleum , 
coal , schist , shale, peat, or other bituminous substance, and any product of them , 
as gives off an inflammable vapour at a temperature of less than 100° FP 
It is important here to determine what is included under the term petroleum 
as now used in the Acts. Does petroleum include benzol and the compound 
anaesthetic ether used for the spray ? Benzol is obtained from coal-tar, and 
must certainly come under the definition if it can be shown that it is a product 
made from an oil obtained from coal, etc. Perhaps it might be contended that 
it is an educt. and not a product ; but we presume the word product was not in¬ 
tended to be used in this restricted sense in the Act. Again, the compound 
anaesthetic ether contains the most volatile of the hydrocarbons present in pe¬ 
troleum ; and if this is not the kind of product intended to be comprised under 
the definition, what is? Yet it can hardly be supposed that the regulations 
specified in the Act were intended to apply to benzol and its preparations, and 
the compound anaesthetic ether. 
According to the Act of 1862 it was unlawful for any person to keep more 
than forty gallons of petroleum within fifty yards of a dwelling-house or of a 
building in which goods are stored, without having a licence for doing so ; but 
this, the 3rd section of that Act, is repealed by the Act of 1868, and jthe law 
now stands, that “ no petroleum shall be kept , otherwise than for private use , 
within fifty yards of a dwelling-house or of a building in which goods are stored . 
except in pursuance of a licence given in accordance with the Petroleum Act , 1862.” 
It is further enacted that u there may be annexed to any such licence such con¬ 
ditions as to the mode of storage, as to the nature of the goods with which pe¬ 
troleum may be stored, as to the testing such petroleum from time to time, and 
generally as to the safe keeping of petroleum, as may seem expedient to the local 
authority.” 
The unsophisticated druggist may possibly exclaim, what! all this fuss about 
a bottle of u scouring drops,” or a little solution of gutta percha. 
We are not prepared to say, and indeed, we do not think, the Act was in¬ 
tended to be thus applied, but if strictly interpreted, it seems to take in all the 
very volatile hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum or any of the tar products, 
whatever their source. 
The Act of 1862 applied only to the keeping of petroleum, but in the Act of 
1868 a new feature is introduced, inasmuch as the law now regulates the mode 
of selling it as well as keeping it for sale. 
{Section 5 provides as follows:— 
“ No person shall sell or expose for sale for use within the United Kingdom, 
any description of petroleum, from and after the first day of February, one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, which gives off an inflammable vapour 
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