Antozone and Peroxide of Hydrogen. 405 



The History of Antozone and Peroxide of Hydrogen. 



(Read April 12th. 1880.) 



I. ANTOZONE. 



By far the most important fact in the long and perplexing 

 history of Antozone, is the recent discovery that there is no 

 Antozone. After giving rise to a very voluminous literature, 

 filled with confused and contradictory statements, the mysteri- 

 ous body named by Schonbein Antozone, has disappeared from 

 the pages of chemistry, and been added to that daily increasing 

 host of defunct chemical elements, which, after a brief and 

 troubled existence, have fallen into final oblivion. As it was, it 

 never had a sturdy existence. It appeared to be a sort of chemi- 

 cal will-o-the-wisp, a matter of exhalations, connecting its ex- 

 istence with the formation and disappearance of clouds and 

 similar phenomena, and ever resisting the attempts of the ex- 

 perimenter to obtain it in some tangible form. The ghost of 

 Antozone, raised by bchonbein, and, together with its twin 

 brother, Atmizone, expanded into great proportions by the la- 

 bors of Meissner, was struck down by von Babo (in his Contri- 

 butions towards a Knowledge of Ozone, 1863) and finally laid 

 by the experiments of Nasse and Engler, on the phenomena 

 attendant upon the action of oil of vitriol upon peroxide of 

 barium (1870). 



And when we consider for a moment the overwhelming host 

 of acquisitions which are yearly made to our stores of veritable 

 chemical knowledge, the mind experiences a sensation of actual 

 relief in seeing so many questionable statements expunged from 

 the history of chemistry, and in getting hold, so to speak, of an 

 unexpected tabula rasa on which to write discoveries of perma- 

 nent value. Such being the case, it would certainly be an un- 

 remunerated toil to weigh and ponder the great bulk of conflict- 

 ing data concerning Antozone. The most we would feel willing 

 to undeitake would be, to inquire into the grounds upon which 

 such mistaken views were originally built : further, into the 

 experiments which appeared to confirm these views, and eventu- 



