170 On Ozone. 



means of restoring to animals and to man a sufficient and normal 

 amount of Oxygen, to replace that which may have become 

 consumed by animal respiration, and the various operations of 

 nature and of art. The physician, in his investigations on the 

 cause of disease, and as guardian of the public health, more es 

 pecially in reference to diseases of an epidemic character, has 

 not been silent in ascribing to it a salutary or deleterious 

 agency in proportion to its presence or absence, and as exerting 

 an important influence on the health, of individuals and of na- 

 tions, varying with the time, the season, and the temperature. 



A substance, the knowledge of which seems to be fraught with 

 life and health, both to the animal and vegetable kingdom, and 

 which must, as a consequence, have an important bearing on the 

 agricultural and commercial wealth of nations, demands from the 

 man of science, a calm and patient investigation, so as to give to 

 it a proper place in the annals of true science. 



It is for this purpose that the present observations are sub- 

 mitted, trusting that in so vast a field for enquiry, many may be 

 found as co-labourers — willing to contribute, however little, to the 

 vast treasury of true knowledge. 



As far back as the end of the 18th century Van Marum, in 

 experimenting on the electrical action on oxygen speaks of the 

 odour or smell being very strong, and which appeared to him as 

 the smell of electrical matter, and it is scarcely to be doubted that 

 Gilbert, Hawksbee, Dufay, Franklin and others were equally 

 sensible of the peculiar odour generated by electrical action. 



It is about 19 years ago since Suhonbein, during his investiga- 

 tions on the decomposition of water by the Voltaic pile, remarked 

 the odour that became manifest, and in a letter written to Arago 

 in 1840, he says, "that for some years past he had been familiar 

 " with the odour generated during the decomposition of water by 

 " this voltaic current, " and to this simple elementary body he 

 gave the name of Ozone (from ozo, to smell). 



The first accounts of the investigations of this substance may be 

 found in the " Memoirs de la Societe d'Histoire naturelle de BcLle? 

 in the "Journal de chimie pratique" Erdmann in the "An- 

 nates de Poggendorf" also in the "Archives de V Electricite^ 

 de Marignac et De La Rive, and also in the various British sci- 

 entific periodicals. 



Schonbein at this period of his investigations believed it to be 

 a simple elementary body analogous to chlorine, bromine and 



