56 
the reagent used, was only produced after shaking with 
water. We know that Ozone, by simply shaking with water, 
does not produce any trace of Peroxide of Hydrogen, there- 
fore we must conclude that another modification of Oxygen 
is contained in the Spirits of Turpentine. The most reasona- 
ble supposition is, that the molecule of common Oxygen in 
contact with the essence, was split up into its two atoms and 
these, yet surrounded by their heat-sphere, formed a loose, 
more physical than chemical combination with the molecules 
of the Hydro-carbon ; as we are acquainted with analogous 
instances in chemistry. This atomistic Oxygen may be called 
“ Antozone.” I thoroughly agree with Engler and Nasse, in 
their view that the hypothesis of positive and negative 
Oxygen has no foundation whatever, and that there is not 
any reason for distinguishing different Peroxides of the 
metals as “ Ozonides” and “ Antozonides,” but what I under- 
took to prove is, that Oxygen may exist as yet another modi- 
fication, which however has nothing to do with an especially 
electric character. 
Pror. Henry Wurtz read 
A Preliminary Note on the Chemical Geogony of Silica, 
Of which the following is an abstract. As longago as 1854, 
he took occasion, in the report upon the Geology of New Jer- 
sey for that year, page 37, to insist on the importance of 
Silica in soils in the soluble form, thus: 
“Tt is the ingredient in soils which furnishes to many 
plants, especially to the cereals, such as corn, wheat, etc., the 
_ silica, Which is absolutely necessary to the formation of their 
stalk or stem. Silica, which is the most abundant of all 
mineral substances, forming certainly more than one half of 
the mass of the earth, so far as the latter is known, occurs in 
soils in three different forms; first, in the crystalline form, as 
quartz, sand, ete, in which form it is wholly insoluble, and 
may be considered inert, so far as the nutrition of plants is 
concerned ; secondly, in combination, in fragments of feld- 
