477 



gases, is destroyed by agitation with a large quantity of water ; it is 

 also, contrary to the common statements, destroyed by being agi- 

 tated with lime-water and baryta- water, provided a sufficient quan- 

 tity of those solutions be used ; it has always the same peculiar 

 odour ; it bleaches without producing previously an acid reaction ; 

 it oxidizes in all cases the same bodies, &c. 



From the whole investigation the author draws the conclusion, 

 " that ozone, from whatever source derived, is one and the same 

 substance, and is not a compound body, but oxygen in an altered or 

 allotropic condition." 



XIII. "On Rubian and its Products of Decomposition." 

 Part III. By EDWARD SCHUNCK, F.R.S. Received June 

 13, 1855. 



Combined Action of Alkalies and Oxygen on Rubian. 



In the preceding part of this paper the author has shown that the 

 action of alkalies is essentially the same as that of acids on rubian, 

 the only difference being that the rubianine produced by acids is 

 replaced by rubiadine when alkalies are employed. Now though 

 this is in all cases the final result of the action of alkalies, there still 

 remained a possibility of the existence of bodies intermediate between 

 rubian and the final products of decomposition. Such bodies do in 

 reality exist, but their formation is dependent, in part at least, on 

 the simultaneous action of oxygen. 



When alkalies or alkaline earths, as potash, soda, ammonia, 

 baryta or lime, or the bicarbonates of baryta or lime are added to a 

 watery solution of rubian, and the solution is exposed to the air, 

 oxygen is absorbed, and three distinct bodies are formed, to which 

 the author has given the names of Rubianic Acid, Rubidehydran and 

 Rubihydran. The method of separating these bodies and obtaining 

 them in a state of purity is fully detailed. Even oxide of lead is a 

 sufficiently strong base to cause rubian to undergo this process of 

 decomposition in the presence of oxygen. From this cause the lead 

 compound of rubian, after being exposed for some time to the atmo- 

 sphere, no longer contains unchanged rubian, but products of its de- 

 composition ; and hence also it follows that in the processes pro- 



2x2 



