442 



XL " Note on the Oxidation and Disoxidation effected by the 

 Peroxide of Hydrogen." By B. C. BRODJE, F.R.S., Pro- 

 fessor of Chemistry in the University of Oxford. Received 

 September 9, 1861. 



In a former communication* I laid before the Society a detailed 

 investigation as to the remarkable disoxidation of certain metallic 

 oxides (of which the decomposition of the oxide of silver may be 

 regarded as typical) by the peroxide of hydrogen. I suggested that 

 this decomposition was of a simple and normal chemical character ; 

 that the element oxygen was formed according to a molecular law 

 identical with that according to which compound substances are 

 formed ; and that the mutual decomposition of the two oxides was 

 determined by the synthesis of the particles of oxygen in opposite 

 polar conditions, according to the equation 



Ag 2 + H 2 2 =Ag 2 +H 2 + 2 . 



After an interval of nearly ten years, this explanation, together 

 with various facts bearing upon the theory of this action, and which 

 were given for the first time in the paper alluded to, have been 

 reproduced as original discoveries by Schonbein, Professor of Che- 

 mistry at Basle f. 



The reaction docs not, however, present itself under this simple 

 form. The amount of oxygen lost by the oxide of silver is a variable 

 quantity, comprised between the extreme limits of the catalytic action 

 in which the reduction is zero, and the normal chemical action as 

 expressed in the above equation. The reason for this variation is 

 to be sought in the disturbing influence of the metal formed during 

 the decomposition. 



It is my intention shortly to communicate to the Society a prose- 

 cution of the above inquiry, in which I investigate the decomposition 

 by the peroxide of hydrogen of certain oxygenated substances con- 

 tained in solution, where the perturbing causes which affect the de- 

 composition of the solid oxides and conceal the simplicity of the 

 reaction, do not exist. 



The methods by which the following results have been obtained 



* Phil. Trans, ii. 1850, 759. f Phil. Mag. [4] xvi. 178. 



