THE PHYSIOLOGICAL INFLUENCE OF OZONE? 
By Leonarp Hin, F.R.S., and Martin Frack. 
(From the laboratory of the London Hospital Medical College.) 
Ozone has been extolled as the active health-giving agent in moun- 
tain and sea air, its virtues have been vaunted as a therapeutic agent, 
until these have, by mere reiteration, become part and parcel of com- 
mon belief; and yet exact physiological evidence in favor of its good 
effects has been hitherto almost entirely wanting. Ozone has been 
found occasionally in traces in the atmosphere, it has been proved to 
have active oxidizing properties, and on these facts the superstructure 
of its therapy has been reared. 
Popular attention has been fixed on the mysterious and the 
unknown, and has neglected the prepotent power of cold wind and 
sunlight to influence the nervous health and metabolism of man. 
The only thoroughly well-ascertained knowledge concerning the 
physiological effect of ozone so far attained is that it causes irritation 
‘and cedema of the lungs, and death if inhaled in relatively strong 
concentration for any time, e. g., 0.05 per cent, death in two hours 
(Schwarzenbach); 1 per cent in one hour (Barlow). 
A. Loewy and N. Zuntz? write that “the physiological foundations 
of an ozone-therapy can scarcely be discussed, so little is the extent 
of our exact knowledge on this subject.” The old idea that ozone 
passing into the blood acts as an oxidizing agent there, thus destroy- 
ing organized and unorganized poisons, was exploded by Pfliiger * who 
pointed out that ozone is immediately destroyed on contact with 
blood; even if it were not, there is no reason why it should oxidize 
toxins rather than normal constituents of the blood. 
C. Binz‘ observed that ‘animals submitted to ozone became quiet 
and appeared to sleep.” W. Sigmund ° also noted this effect in white 
mice, gold fish, and insects. He considered that ozone is not a very 
dangerous substance, for even small animals could bear for a time a 
relatively large amount without serious effect; warm-blooded animals 
were the more sensitive. 
, London, B. vol. 84,1911, pp. 404-415. 
1 Reprinted by permission from the Proceedings of the Royal Society 
Received by the Society July 6; read Dec. 7, 1911. 
2 Handbuch der Sauerstofftherapie, Michaelis, Berlin, 1906, p. 6] 
3 Pfliiger’s Archiv, ¥ol. 10, p. 251. 
4 Berl. Klin. Wochensch., 1882, Nos. 1, 2, 43. 
5 Cent. f. Bakter. (ii), 1905, vol. 14, p. 635. el7 
