4i8 



NATURE 



[September i, li 



nitric peroxide. Now this gas, besides often being 

 objectionable on its own account, would undoubtedly 

 tend to reduce the yield of ozone. Mr. Andreoli does 

 not, however, admit that nitric peroxide is formed in his 

 appai-atus, and if further experience should support his 

 contention it would seem that he has really effected a 

 substantial improvement. 



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this part of the apparatus, as india-rubber perishes with 

 astonishing rapidity when exposed to the action of ozone. 

 It seems often to be supposed by inventors and others, 

 that air and oxygen may be employed indifferently as 

 sources of ozone. This, however, is not really the case. 

 If moderately pure oxygen be used, nitrous fumes are 

 far less likely to be formed than when air is employed ; 

 and this is so not only in 

 the event of large sparks 

 passing in the ozoniser, 

 but also when the gas is 

 subjected to the influence 

 of the silent discharge. 

 Unfortunately we do not 

 yet know the exact con- 

 ditions under which the 

 silent discharge induces 

 the formation of nitric 

 peroxide, though the sub- 

 ject is being investigated ; 

 and therefore for the pre- 

 sent, unless it can be 

 shown that nitric per- 

 oxide is itself beneficial, 

 or, at least, quite un- 

 objectionable, ozone for 

 medical use should cer- 

 tamly be prepared from 

 oxygen whenever it is 

 possible to do so. 



For medical purposes the new apparatus takes the 

 form of a vacuum tube (l. Fig. 2), containing a metallic 

 rod. This is surrounded by an armature (ll and ill, 

 Fig. 2), made of aluminium and armed with points. 

 When the latter and the metallic rod are joined up to a 

 ■coil or to a step-up transformer a glow makes its appear- 

 ance, and the air between the two electrodes is rapidly 

 ozonised. If a stream of ozonised air is required for in- 



A DRAGON OF THE 

 PRIME. 



THE little Warwick- 

 shire village of Stock- 

 ton, ploughed and exca- 



lialation, or must be conveyed to any particular locality, 

 the above little apparatus is surrounded by a glass jacket, 

 as shown in Fig. 3. 



Air or oxygen can then be pumped through the ap- 

 paratus, and thence delivered from a celluloid trumpet 

 for inhalation, or conveyed by a tube to the required 

 locality. The use of india-rubber should be avoided in 



vated by three manufacturing cement firms, has long 

 yielded to collectors choice specimens of Lower Middle 

 Lias fossils. Its late rector educated the quarrymen by 

 lectures and in conversation to understand and value the 

 vertebrae and belemnites and limas and encrinites which 

 they continually disinterred, forming with their help a 

 collection which on his departure went to form the 

 nucleus of a County Council museum. The Saurian 

 remains have hitherto been always frag- 

 mentary, a fact due, perhaps, to the men's 

 careless digging ; but the rector left them 

 with a prediction that a perfect monster 

 would some day be unearthed, an entreaty 

 that should they ever come across a head 

 or a continuous backbone, they would drop 

 pick and crowbar, and call in experts to 

 direct and continue the search. A week 

 or two ago the prediction was fulfilled, and 

 the advice remembered. The wielder of a 

 pickaxe suddenly announced that he was 

 " grapplin' along a lot of backbones " ; the 

 work was stopped, the foreman summoned, 

 and slowly with due precaution a noble 

 Icthyosaurus was uncovered. He lies 45 feet 

 below the surface ; 20 feet in length, the 

 head 2 feet across, and 3 feet 10 inches 

 long. The paddles are unusually distinct, 

 the front pair 2 feet 6 inches, the hind pair 

 I foot 8 inches in length. The tail is 

 abruptly curved, and some of the lumbar 

 are slightly displaced. The pelvic ring is 

 removed, perhaps, before the nature of the 

 guessed, and still to be recovered. The 

 quarry belongs to Mr. M. Lakin, of Leamington, who 

 intends, I understand, to present the specimen to 

 the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. 

 Crowds from all parts of the county throng to see it ; 



vertebrae 

 missing, 

 find was 



NO. 1505, VOL. 58] 



