THE PETROLEUM ACT. 499 
purpose and scope of our remarks refer to circumstances of present existence, 
which in the natural course of events will be of short duration. 
THE PETROLEUM ACT. 
The publicity that has been given to the provisions of this Act, and the 
advertisements which have emanated from local authorities by whom licences 
are granted for dealing in petroleum, have created a good deal of excitement, 
and caused much apprehension of unnecessary and troublesome interference 
with the sale of products that are supplied to the public by chemists and drug¬ 
gists. As stated by us last month, the term petroleum, in the sense in which it 
is used in the Act of 1868, includes the more volatile products obtained by dis¬ 
tillation from coal and other bituminous substances as well as crude petroleum. 
Among the volatile liquids thus brought within the definition of the term is 
benzol, or benzine, an article of Materia Medica ordered in the Pharmacopoeia, 
and occasionally used in medicine, but more extensively used for removing 
grease spots, for cleaning gloves, and for other similar purposes, also as a solvent 
of gutta percha, and the menstruum of varnishes used in photography and the 
arts. Some of the more volatile hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum, al¬ 
though not identical with benzol, are used for similar purposes, and the most 
volatile of them have received some special applications in medical practice, their 
great volatility having indicated their use in the production of insensibility by 
the spray. Now, these volatile liquids are all clearly included under the term 
petroleum as interpreted by the Act, and no exception is made of any of them 
from the operation of the provisions of the Act; but it can hardly be supposed 
that the regulations which have been introduced were intended to apply to such 
liquids when sold in small quantities, or kept for medicinal use by chemists. 
We expressed this opinion in a qualified way last month, but have hesitated to 
do so more strongly until an opinion could be obtained from some competent 
authority. Since then a deputation, consisting of the President of the Pharma¬ 
ceutical Society, with some members of the Council and officers of the Institu¬ 
tion, and accompanied by Mr. Thomas, the proprietor of benzine collas, and 
Mr. Sanger, the patent medicine dealer, have had an interview with the Under 
Secretary of State at the Home Office, when the subject was fully discussed in 
its various bearings. Mr. Liddell, the Under Secretary, stated more than once 
that he did not think the Act was intended to apply to small quantities of 
benzol or other similar liquids when kept and sold by chemists for purposes 
such as were explained by the deputation, and are referred to above. 
The views entertained by the deputation were submitted to the Secre¬ 
tary in the following form :— 
“ That the Petroleum Act, 1868, in the form in which it was introduced by 
Sir James Fergusson and Mr. Gathorne Hardy, was intended for regulating the 
storage and sale of certain volatile oily products obtained by distillation from 
natural petroleum, or from coal, or other bituminous substances, and which are 
used as cheap substitutes for fixed or non-volatile oils for burning in lamps. 
“ That in the Bill, as originally introduced and printed, the 5th section stated, 
4 no person shall sell or expose for sale for the purpose of being used in lamps , or 
otherwise for the production of artificial light, any description of petroleum,’ 
etc., thus showing that the provisions of the Act were intended to apply to pe¬ 
troleum and other analogous bodies when used as lamp oil. 
“That it has been from the use or supply of petroleum for this purpose that 
dangerous accidents have occurred, and these have generally arisen from igno¬ 
rance, on the part of those using the petroleum, of its volatile nature, and of 
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