oe" 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 33 
on observations made with the intention of estimating ozone in the atmosphere, in 
the absence of any conclusive evidence of the existence of this substance in the air. 
It is therefore highly satisfactory that Andrews, to whom we were already so much 
indebted for our knowledge of the properties of ozone, has at length proved, that 
the reaction exhibited by ozone test-papers, at a distance from towns, is in reality 
due to ozone. Thus the numerous observations, extending over so many years, 
now attain a value which they did not before possess. 
The synthetical and constitutional departments of Organic Chemistry have re- 
ceived important additions from the discoverer of the first aniline colour, In pur- 
suing his interesting researches on the salicylic series, Perkin has succeeded in 
artificially producing coumarin—the odoriferous principle of the sweet-scented 
Woodruff and Tonquin bean—hesides a number of homologues of this substance. 
To the same Chemist we are also indebted for a theoretical paper of great import- 
ance, on the probable difference in the value of the four bonds of carbon—a subject 
which, in its bearings upon isomerism, has long claimed, though it has never re- 
ceived, the earnest attention of Chemists. 
Perkin and Duppa have submitted the glyoxylic acid, originally obtained by them 
from dibromacetic acid, to a searching constitutional investigation, which has led 
them to the conclusion that this acid is identical with the one obtained by Debus 
from the slow oxidation of alcohol; thus establishing the fact that two semi- 
molecules of hydroxyl can unite with one and the same atom of carbon—a kind of 
combination the possibility of which had been disputed, although an analogous 
compound of hydrosulphy! is well known. 
Maxwell Simpson, another of the most active and successful workers in this 
branch of Organic Chemistry, has continued his researches on the constitution of 
succinic acid, and on the direct transformation of chloriodide of ethylene into 
glycol. 
To general Organic Chemistry important contributions have been made by 
Stenhouse on chloranil, and by Griess on the action of cyanogen upon amido- 
acids, 
Physiological Chemistry has received a new impulse from the highly instructive 
experiments of Crum Brown and Fraser on the connexion between chemical con- 
stitution and physiological action. It had been shown by Bunsen that cacodylic acid, 
though readily soluble in water, and containing 54 per cent. of arsenic, produced, 
when administered to animals, no appreciable poisonous effect, whilst Landolt found 
that the poisonous properties of antimony disappeared in the salts of tetramethyl- 
stibonium. Messrs. Crum Brown and Fraser have studied the change in physio- 
logical action produced by the addition of methylic iodide to the natural alka- 
loids, strychnine, brucine, thebaine, codeine, morphine, and nicotine, and they show 
conclusively that the physiological action of these poisons is both greatly dimi- 
nished in degree and completely changed in character. Their experiments also 
lead them to the singularly remarkable and important conclusion, that when a 
nitrile base possesses a strychnine-like action, the salts of the corresponding am- 
monium bases have an action identical with that of the curare poison. It is well 
known that curare and strychnine are derived from plants belonging to the same 
genus; and it is, therefore, interesting to observe such a relationship. 
Again, the experiments of Dr. Arthur Gamgee on the action of nitrites upon 
blood afford a striking illustration of the successful application of the most deli- 
cate processes of chemical analysis to physiological research. 
T cannot close this brief and very imperfect summary of British chemical in- 
vestigation during the past year without congratulatmg the Section on the com- 
pletion of that most valuable addition to the literature of the science—Watt’s 
Dictionary of Chemistry. The extent, completeness, unity of design, and general 
accuracy of this great work reflect the highest credit upon its talented editor, who 
has conferred a boon upon his colleagues for which they can never sufficiently 
thank him. 
The statistics illustrative of comparative chemical activity in this country and 
elsewhere warn me not to attempt, in these necessarily brief remarks, any analysis 
of foreign research. I cannot, however, avoid alluding to one or two out of the 
many foreign achievements of the past year, 
1868. | 3 
