NITRO-GLYCERINE. 
315 
to  burn  when  the  light  is  removed,  and  decomposes  with  explo- 
sion at  a  temperature  of  350°  F.  Under  the  name  of  glonoin, 
it  had  been  used  in  medicine  ;  the  inhalation  of  its  fumes  cured 
violent  headache,  and  its  action  on  the  animal  system  is,  accord- 
ing to  Dr.  Demme,  of  Bern,  similar  to  strychnia  ;  its  employment 
would  be  indicated  in  those  cases  where  nux  vomica  is  used,  the 
effects  of  which  it  seemed  to  excel  in  some  instances. 
It  may  be  from  the  fact  that  never  large  quantities  at  a  time 
have  been  prepared  and  preserved,  or  that  the  chemists  have 
operated  with  pure  materials  only,  no  accident  from  explosion 
or  otherwise  has  been  recorded  ;*  to  the  contrary,  it  has  not  been 
considered  dangerous  except  when  taken  internally. 
I  am  unable  to  state  whether  nitro-glycerine  has  been  applied 
technically,  otherwise  than  as  Nobel's  Blasting  Oil  (Sprerig-Oel) 
which  Mr.  Nobel  claims  to  be  almost  pure,  at  least  as  much  so 
as  an  article  of  that  kind  permits  to  be  without  becoming  too 
expensive.  This  patent  blasting  oil  is  an  oily  liquid  of  a  light 
gray  color  of  the  same  specific  gravity  as  the  other,  and  also  in- 
soluble in  water.  It  claims  in  fact  the  same  properties  as  the 
pure  glonoin  and  the  same  relations  to  test.  Mr.  Nobel,  in 
reply  to  a  statement  of  spontaneous  decomposition  of  nitro-gly- 
cerine, denies  it  positively  that  his  compound,  even  if  spontane- 
ously decomposed,  could  ignite  and  explode,  for  it  only  explodes 
at  a  temperature  of  350°  F.,  and  it  is  very  doubtful  that  any 
liquid  should  acquire  such  a  temperature  by  slow  organic  decom- 
position. He  also  states  that  a  bottle  of  oil,  for  twelve  years  in 
his  possession,  has  been  treated  in  boiling  water  many  a  time, 
exposed  to  the  action  of  the  sun  and  various  chemical  substances 
without  showing  the  slightest  trace  of  decomposition.  He  attri- 
butes the  decomposition  of  the  oil  alluded  to  solely  to  impurities 
contained  in  it. 
A  communication  to  a  scientific  society  at  Berlin,  in  speaking 
of  the  blasting  oil,  considers  its  "  harmlessness  "  on  being  trans- 
ported or  stored — a  great  advantage  over  gunpowder,  which  it 
also  exceeds  more  than  twenty  times  in  explosive  power.  The 
[*This  is  an  error,  (see  Amer.  Jour.  Pharm.,  1860,  page  524,)  as  Dr. 
Chas.  Ferris  .nearly  lost  his  sight  by  the  explosion  of  this  substance  by 
heat. — Ed.  Am.  J.  Pharm.] 
