CHEMISTRY. 163 



In regard to the first and second points, after detailing the very 

 carefully conducted experiments which were performed, Meissner 

 believes, " that these experiments, not once only or a few times 

 repeated, but performed very frequently, prove the following 

 point : that the mist formed by deozonized electrized oxygen with 

 aqueous vapor appears when neither chlorine, nitrogen, am- 

 monia, hydrogen, carbonic acid, nor watery vapor is present in 

 the tube where the electrizing occurs ; and that tho presence or 

 aid of neither of these substances is necessary for its subsequent 

 formation ; that, in other words, the mist phenomenon requires 

 only dry electrized oxygen, the iodide of potassium used for de- 

 ozonization and the vapor of water for its production." The third 

 point is proved by the substitution for the iodide of potassium of 

 a variety of other bodies, differing widely in chemical character 

 and agreeing only in the property of absorbing ozone. The mist 

 is chemically identical whatever be the agent used to absorb the 

 ozone ; it is neither acid nor alkaline, consists of a body neither 

 soluble nor insoluble in water, but is solely a mechanical or ad- 

 hesive combination of oxygen and water, which, when washed 

 and collected in a gas-holder, gradually disappears, fine fluid 

 drops collecting upon the walls of the vessel, which, when ex- 

 amined, are found to be pure water, containing possibly, under 

 certain conditions, a trace of peroxide of hydrogen. Experiment 

 leads to the conclusion that there exists in the pure, dry electrized 

 oxygen, besides unaltered oxygen and ozone, a third body, a 

 third modification or condition of oxygen, to which the phenome- 

 non of the mist is to be ascribed. The paper further treats of the 

 action of various substances on electrized oxygen, and in a second 

 section discusses the " quantitative estimation of ozone and the 

 contraction of volume in electrizing oxygen. 11 From an " Abstract 

 of the second series of Professor Meissner^s Researches upon Electrized 

 Oxygen? by Prof. Barker in tlie Amer. Jour. Science, L. (1870), pp. 

 213-223. 



HTDROGENIUM-AMALGAM. 



" When zinc-amalgam is shaken with water a slow decomposi- 

 tion of the latter takes place, recognized by the formation of floe- 

 culi of hydrated oxide of zinc, and the evolution of small bubbles 

 of hydrogen on allowing the mixture to stand for a time. This 

 decomposition of water by zinc is intensified when a small 

 quantity of bichloride of platinum is present; a spongy body then 

 being formed on the surface of the zinc-amalgam. This body I 

 have found to be an alloy of hydrogenium and mercury. 



" In order to obtain the hydrogenium-amalgam on a larger 

 scale, zinc-amalgam, containing a few per cent, of zinc, is shaken 

 thoroughly with about an equal volume of bichloride of platinum, 

 containing about 10 per cent, of the bichloride, care being taken to 

 keep the mixture cool. The zinc-amalgam swells up con- 

 siderably, precisely as in the ammonium-amalgam experiment, 

 and continues to evolve hydrogen till the decomposition of the 

 amalgam is complete. I found that the volume of the hy- 



