AND SCHONBEIN 97 



temperatures oxidize different bodies in an analogous 

 manner, that therefore the oxidizing constituent of 

 nitric acid must be ozone. In addition to this you 

 assume that ozone is a compound of H + 0, isomeric 

 with hydrogen peroxide, and so nitric acid must be 

 H 2 2 + N 2 4 and the nitrates, E N. But does ozone 

 really contain hydrogen ? This question we can 

 answer most emphatically in the negative. If oxygen 

 gas collected during the last third of its evolution 

 from potassium chlorate be exposed to a series of 

 short electric sparks, ozone is formed just as readily 

 and to precisely the same extent as during the first 

 third of the operation. In this case, however, it is 

 physically impossible for water to be present. This 

 constitutes the most indisputable proof that ozone 

 does not contain hydrogen. Hence it follows that 

 ozone is an allotropic modification of oxygen itself, 

 distinguished from the ordinary form by the sensation 

 it produces in the olfactory nerves and its power of 

 entering into all manner of combinations at low 

 temperatures ; thus ozone is entitled to an infinitely 

 greater attention than if it were an individual sub- 

 stance. From this point of view your discovery of 

 ozone is one of the most magnificent ever made ; but 

 you should not allow yourself to be dazzled by it. 



Starting from this simple assumption, which is 

 now established, we have to ask what connection 

 there is between ozone and hydrogen peroxide, the 

 acids of nitrogen, chlorine, bromine, iodine, etc. 

 Ozone oxidizes at low temperatures and unites with 

 organic bodies to form derivatives which ordinary 



