Note 2 — Chapter V · THE ATTACK ON THE ROCK.

Picric acid is supposed to form the main constituent of mélinite. “Picric acid is very deficient in oxygen, as its formula shows. The productions of its explosion will, therefore, largely consist of the actively poisonous carbonic oxide, and hence, as a blasting agent in mines, it would be objectionable. In digging out some shells which had been charged with some picric acid explosive and fired into earth, some French soldiers were poisoned by the noxious fumes some time after the shells had been fired and burst.”—Major Cundill’s “Dictionary of Explosives.” 1889. Page 87.