l82 



NA TURE 



IJan. 8, 1874 



the author enumerates gneiss, amphibolgneiss, mica- 

 schist, talc-schist, phyllite, granite, syenite, amphibolite, 

 serpentine, and crystalline limestone. Under the meso- 

 zoic division, he gives red sandstone, quartzite, and con- 

 glomerate, which he considers to be of Triassic age, and 

 compact limestone and dolomite, which may be either of 

 Triassic or Jurassic age, or both. Above these come 

 deposits of chalk and marl of middle cretaceous age. 

 The tertiary and quaternary deposits consist of miocene 

 lacustrine beds with lignites, post-miocene diluvium or 

 fluviatile gravels, and alluvium. An\ongst eruptive rocks 

 he enumerates quartz-porphyry,augite-porphyry,pyroxenic 

 tuft' and conglomerate, trachyte, trachyte-conglomerate, 

 pumaceous tuff, &.C. The only other geological paper in 

 this number is an explanation of Sheet iv. (East Car- 

 pathia) of the Geological Survey's map of the Austro- 

 Hungarian empire. Both numbers of the Jnhybuc/i are 

 accompanied by the usual mineralogical communications, 

 which containanumberof papers, amongstthemoneby von 

 Johann Rumpf upon " Kalu^zitc," anew mineral, the che- 

 mical formula of which is given as CaKj (SO,), -j- aq. or in 

 another way as CaO, SO3 + KO. SO3 -|- aq. An illustra- 

 tive plate accompanies the description. — Prof Tschermak 

 furnishes some account of the meteorites in the imperial 

 mineralogical collection up to October 1872, giving a table 

 that shows in a condensed form the names of the places 

 where the meteorites were found, the hour of the day, the 

 day of the month, and the year in which the stone fell, 

 &c. — Special mention must also be made of a paper by 

 Fuchs on the Island of Ischia, which is geological and 

 historical, as well as petrological — a paper which will well 

 repay perusal by those who are engaged in the study of 

 igneous geology. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. No notice is taken oj anonymous 

 communications.'\ 



The Largest Amphipod. — Willemoesia (Deidamia). 



In a paper which was read at the Royal Societv this 

 year, I described the anatomy of a female amphipod caught 

 in the Atlantic, and remarkable for its large size and the absence 

 of the second pair of antenna;. This leinale had a length of 

 84mm., not of 14 mm., as has been stated in Nature and in 

 other periodicals which have reprinted my abstract from the 

 Proc. Roy. Soc. We have since also caught males of 

 this interesting amphipod, which were still larger, more than 

 3 in. long. A description of these has Ijeen added to the above- 

 mentioned paper, so that now the anatomy of both sexes will be 

 known. This amphipod, which, as we have discovered, lives on 

 the surface, is, thus, by far the largest one known. Some 

 figures represeniing the male and parts of the mouth, 

 which at first could not be diss.c td, and therefore not well be 

 seen, will appear in a larger paper on some of the remarkable 

 deep-sea and other Crustacea caught dm'ing the Chalknger's 

 cruise in the Atlantic. 



This amphipod, however, which was supposed to be new, and 

 to which I gave the name of Tliaiiiiiops fdlucidii, has been 

 ahcady described by Guerin-Meneville under the name of Cys- 

 tosoina ncptiiiii. The distinguished French naturalist has de- 

 scribed this species fiom a single specimen caught in the Indian 

 Ocean. This I found out only when I got iNIr. Spence Bates's 

 catalogue of amphipods sent out to me, in which the original 

 figure has been reproduced. The first description '■{ this species 

 seems, however, to be so incomplete, that some additional know- 

 ledge about its stmcture will be welcome, I hope, to zoologists. 



The geographical distribution of certain amphipods seems to 

 be a very wide one, fur we have not only caught several speci- 

 mens of Cystosoma in the Atlantic, but also a species of the 

 genus Oxycephalus, which hitherto seems to have been found in 

 no other but the Indian Ocean. 



With regard to WilhiiiOLsia {Deidamia), Mr. Grote has been 

 kind enough to point out in vol. viu. p. 485 of Nature, that the 

 name Deidamia has been used already for a genus of Sphingida;, 



by Dr. Clemens, and honoured me by calling the two blind 

 Crustacea, which are so closely allied to the fossd Engonid^, by 

 our family name ; I am very much obliged to the curator of the 

 Buffalo Museum for this information, and will always be glad, 

 during the time of cur cruise, to receive communications of this 

 kind. For though we have a good libraryon board, mistakes like 

 tliese cannot alwa)s be avoided, when it is necessary to give a 

 name to those animals which I describe, not because they are 

 new, but because they furnish interesting additions to our know- 

 ledge of the morphology of lower animals. 



R. v. WiLLEMOES-SUHM 



H.M.S. Challenger, Simons Bay, Cape of Good Hope, 

 Nov. 24, 1873 



Physiological Effects of Ozone 



Long before Schonbein discovered ozone, electricians who 

 had been in the habit of employing Franklinic or statical elec- 

 tricity as a therapeutic agent, had discovered that tlie electrical 

 aura, as they termed it, or the current of air proceeding from an 

 electrified point, possessed decided physiological properties, and 

 the effect appeared to be the same whether, on the single fluid 

 hypothesis, the electrical current or breeze passed from the point 

 to the animal surface, or vice versil. The physiological elfects 

 principally noticed were the power of this breeze to allay chronic 

 inflammatory actions in delicate organs, such as inflamed eyes, or to 

 relieve pain arising from a decayed tooth ; but they were most 

 remarkable in the curative effect produced on obstinate ulcers, 

 when the electrified current or aura was daily thrown upon their 

 surfaces for some minutes. The ralionalc of this process was not 

 understood, and electricians were contented to accept the facts 

 without being able to explain them. 



About 45 years ago I employed Franklinic electricity as a 

 collateral branch of my electrical pursuits pretty extensively as a 

 therapeutic agent, and had abundant opportunities of noticing 

 these physioIogic.il actions. In addition to these a fact gradually 

 developed it.self during the course of my electrical investigations, 

 namely the effect which an electrified atmosphere had upon the 

 mucous lining of the throat and bronchial tubes. It was no un- 

 common thing, after a day's continuous use of an electrical 

 machine in a close room, to feel a considerable amount of irrita- 

 tion over the respiratory tract very similar to that experienced 

 when recovering from an attack of influenza, and I found that I 

 could often produce the same irritation by removing the 

 prime conductor from the cylinder of an electrical machine and 

 holding my face in such a position as to breathe the copious 

 ramifications of electricity that were thrown off from it. 



These effects are all now referable to the development of 

 ozone, and the interesting experiments of Mr. Dewar and Dr. 

 M'Kendrick, recorded in Nature (vol. ix. p. 104) open up a 

 field of inquiry, the extent and importance of which can scarcely 

 be estimated. Of late years ozone has, by a kind of post hoc 

 propter hoc reasoning, been designated the scavenger of the at- 

 mosphere, since raging epidemics have been suddenly checked in 

 their course after tlie occurrence of a good rattlini; thunder- 

 storm, and hence the old notion, not without good foundation, 

 that lightning clears the air. .So much importance ijas bten 

 attached to the supposed value of this antiseptic agent, that not 

 a few, and myselt amongst the number, liave recommended 

 various forms of apparatus for the development of ozone within 

 the precincts of fever hospitals, but the experiments of Mr. 

 Dewar and Dr. M'Kendrick seem to show that there is a limit 

 beyond which it would not be prudent to ozonise an atmosphere 

 destined for respiratory processes. 



The further investigation of its physiological effects will there- 

 fore be looked forward to with no small interest. The exa- 

 mination of the subject, however, must not end with its effects 

 upon animal physiology. 



From experiments which I have made on the extraordinary 

 electrical conditions which are suddenly imiiiced in an atmosphere 

 forming the extended di-electric of a thunderstorm, I can trace 

 an intimate relation bstween the copious development of ozone 

 and a corresponding effect upon delicate vegetable organisms, 

 which may lead to the discovery of the proximate causes of 

 blight so frequently the accompaniment of tliunflerstorms. Some 

 years ago I extended a smill atmospheric exploring wue between 

 my own house and the cupola of a chapel 400 ft. off. One 

 end of this wire was brought into my stuoy, and connected with 

 anelectrical battery containing aoout 12 square feet ot internal 

 surface ; a discharging apparatus, which also served the purpose 



