THE ATMOSPHERE AND STORMS. 127 



materials, and be able by what we oat aii'l ilrink, to adapt 

 ourselves to any climate or atmosphere. 



A gi has been said in these latter days about a sub- 



stance allied to exist in the atmosphere, and which is considered 

 ial tn healtL In order to show how little is known 

 about it, and how those who write about it contradict them:- 

 and expose their ignorance while endeavouring to define its 

 rluracter, we give a few extracts from an article on " Ozone " in 

 the Scientific American, Feb., 1874 : 



" Ozone is generated by lightning flashes !" " Ozone is 

 'metric state" " Evaporation of saline 



solutions disengages ozone." "Ozone is found near the Sea." 

 " Ozone is heavier than oxygen." 



Another experimenter in Xew York, discovered that matches 

 dipped in water and hung up, cleared the atmosphere by 

 generating ozone. We would suggest that they would be more 

 efficacious if burnt. We have read of some other philosopher 

 who declared the best place for generating ozone was a swamp ! 

 We thus have it stated that ozone is a vegetable gas, and as 

 often that it is a mineral gas. Our readers, we think, will bo 

 more inclined to side with us when we state the whole discovery 

 to be a humbug. If exhalations for purifying the air are 

 wanted, it is not necessary to hunt up ozone. If the air is 

 poisoned with vegetable or animal matter, then any mineral 

 burnt and given off as gas will purify it, and vice versa. 



8TORM3. 



From what we have advanced regarding the composition, and 

 formation of the atmosphere, and the cause of ruin in a previous 

 chapter, it would not be difficult now to arrive at the cause of 



