Abstract
A SHORT time ago some letters on this subject appeared in NATURE, complaining of the difficulties experienced by scientific workers in obtaining permission to use such alcohol, and of the absurd regulations accompanying such permission. Perhaps the complainants, amongst whom, I remember, Sir William Ramsay was one, were somewhat unreasonable, for they should have considered that the officials in the Excise Department, as in other Government departments, are mostly of the “kings and captains” type; they really do not know what a laboratory or scientific work means; they certainly do not know what distillation implies, and probably their only idea as to alcohol is that it is something which is always either under- or over-proof, like the old lady's idea of stocks and shares, as being those things which go up and down in the City.
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PICKERING, S. Duty-Free Alcohol. Nature 96, 370 (1915). https://doi.org/10.1038/096370a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/096370a0
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