CHEMISTRY. 651 



Hautefeuille aud Chapuis, by subjecting a mixture of carbonic anhy- 

 dride and ozone to great pressure, obtained a blue liquid, the color of 

 which is 'due to ozone. If ozonized air be passed into carbon disulphide 

 at —100° the liquid assumes a blue color, which disappears if the tem- 

 perature be allowed to rise, and at a certain point a decomposition, re- 

 sulting in the production of sulphur, takes place. The best solvent 

 for ozone is a mixture of silicon tetrafluoride aud Eussian petroleum. 

 Tliese solutions of ozone are without action on metallic mercury and 

 silver. (Nature, xxxii, 540.) 



Combustion in Dried Gases (by H. Brereton Baker). — It will be remem- 

 bered that, in 1880, Mr. H. B. Dixon demonstrated tliat carbon mo- 

 noxide and oxygen, if perfectly pure and absolutely dry, do not unite 

 when subjected to the electric spark, but that the introduction of a lit- 

 tle moisture causes an explosion. Led by these experiments, Mr. Baker 

 has investigated the question whether moisture is necessary for the com- 

 bustion of carbon and of phosphorus in oxygen. The purified mate- 

 rials were sealed up in bent hard-glass tubes with oxygen and jjhos- 

 phoric anhydride. At intervals of one, two, four, up to sixteen weeks 

 the contents of the tubes were heated and the character of the combus- 

 tion compared with that of the same elements in moist oxygen. The re- 

 sults showed that the burning of carbon is much retarded by drying 

 the oxygen to the extent possible with the arrangement adopted by the 

 author. {Chem. Xeivs, IjI, 150.) 



On the Function of Water in the Combustion of Carbon Monoxide (by 

 Moritz Traube). — As stated in the preceding section, Mr. Dixon proved 

 that a mixture of perfectly dry carbon monoxide and oxygen is not ex- 

 l)loded by the passage of electric sparks, and that the presence of a 

 minute quantity of water suffices to determine the combination of the 

 gases. Dixon supposed that the action of the water could be repre- 

 sented thus : 



(1) CO-f H20=C02+H2 



(2) 2H2-f 02=2H20. 



Moritz Traube confirms Dixon's experiments and goes further. He 

 shows that aflame of carbon monoxide is extinguished when introduced 

 into a perfectly dry atmosphere or into dry oxygen. On the other 

 hand, he finds that carbon monoxide does not decompose water in com- 

 plete absence of air or oyxgeu j and secondly, that when moist carbon 

 monoxide and oxygen are exploded together, hydrogen peroxide is an 

 invariable product. Consequently, Dixon's equations do not correctly 

 represent the action, and Traube suggests the following: 



(1) CO+2H20+02=CO(OH)2-f n^Oa 

 . (2) CO-f H202=CO(OH)2 

 (3) 2CO(OH)2=2C02+2H20. 



When hydrogen is burned in moist oxygen, hydrogen peroxide always 

 forms. Whether a perfectly dry mixture of hydrogen and oxygen 



