THE PHYSIOLOGICAL INFLUENCE OF OZONE. 1 



By Leonard Hill, F.R.S., and Martin Flack. 



(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 oedema 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 2 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 Pfluger 3 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 4 observed that "animals submitted to ozone became quiet 

 and appeared to sleep." W. Sigmund 5 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. 



1 Reprinted by permission from the Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, B. vol. 84, 1911, pp. 404-415. 

 Received by the Society July 6; read Dec. 7, 1911. 



2 Handbuch der Sauerstofftherapie, Michaelis, Berlin, 1906, p. 61 



3 Pfliiger's Archiv, vol. 10, p. 251. 



< Berl. Klin. Wochensch., 1882, Nos. 1, 2, 43. 

 6 Cent. f. Bakter. (ii), 1905, vol. 14, p. 635. 



617 



