100 REPORT—1845. 
fundamental phenomenon which will best serve us to develope our ideas re- 
garding the course of the slow oxidations which take place in the atmosphere. 
Though phosphorus be one of the most readily oxidizable substances, it 
does not, to a perceptible degree, combine at the common temperature with 
the oxygen of atmospheric air, if the latter be completely deprived of its 
moisture. But no sooner has aqueous vapour been added to that air, than 
the oxidation of phosphorus begins, and along with it the emission of light 
and the production of ozone. Of that agent we know that it oxidizes readily 
at the common temperature even silver and iodine, and of course phosphorus 
too. Hence it appears that ozone, at the very moment of its being formed 
under the catalytic influence of phosphorus, out of atmospheric oxygen and 
water, reacts upon phosphorus, and causes both the formation of phosphatic 
acid and the emission of light. 
Every chemist knows the fact that dry atmospheric air is not capable of 
oxidizing at the common temperature even the most oxidizable metals, and 
that under the same circumstances dry organic matters are not acted upon 
by anhydrous atmospheric air. Hence we conclude, that besides the atmo- 
spheric oxygen, water acts an important part in the slow oxidations which 
both the inorganic and organic substances undergo in the open air. 
As far as I know, chemists entertain the opinion that in the cases men- 
tioned water acts only a secondary part, that is to say, the part of a solvent 
for oxygen. It is supposed that the gaseous state of that body weakens consi- 
derably its affinity for the oxidizable substances, and it is said that the affinity 
is much increased by depriving oxygen of its gaseous condition, for instance, 
by dissolving that body in water. 
As long as we had not been acquainted with the remarkable action exerted 
by phosphorus upon moist atmospheric air, the notions alluded to appeared 
to be plausible enough, and notably the rapid acidification which phosphorus 
at the common temperature undergoes in humid air could satisfactorily be 
accounted for in the way mentioned. But in the present state of science we 
can no longer keep up that view, and are obliged to admit that the slow com- 
bustion which phosphorus undergoes in damp air is principally, if not exclu- 
sively due to the exalted oxidizing power of ozone engendered by the cata- 
lytic force of phosphorus. Now if phosphorus enjoys the power of deter- 
mining the atmospheric oxygen to unite with water into ozone, I think the 
conjecture is not over-bold which ascribes the same faculty to some other 
oxidizable substances. In this respect shining wood offers a very remarkable 
case. It is well known that the substance mentioned exhibits the slow com- 
bustion under circumstances very similar to those under which phosphorus 
undergoes the same change. Water being taken away both from atmo- 
spheric air and the rotten wood, that wood ceases to shine in the dark, and 
the formation of carbonic acid is also stopped. Now we cannot say that it is 
the want of water on account of which the oxidation of the wood is prevented, 
because out of the product of the slow combustion a protecting film is formed 
round the combustible matter, as might be said regarding phosphorus ; car- 
bonic acid, being a gaseous substance, leaves the wood as soon as it is produced. 
It seems not unlikely that the peculiar bearing of shining wood is due to the 
same cause to which phosphorus owes its remarkable properties, and if that 
conjecture is allowed to be made, we may go further, and admit the possibility 
that the organic substances which undergo a decomposition in the open air 
possess the power of producing ozone out of free oxygen and water, and that 
it is on this account that those substances require, besides oxygen, some 
water, in order to be resolved at the common temperature into carbonic acid 
and water. 
