270 Prof. Glausius on the Difference between 



tion that oxygen must consist of diatomic molecules ; and I do 

 not see how the actions of ozone, and the mutual union of ozone 

 and antozone to form ordinary oxygen, are to be explained if the 

 molecule of oxygen is presupposed to be monatomic. Before I 

 can further proceed to a discussion of this view, I must of course 

 wait to see what reasons von Babo adduces for it. 



Soret expresses no denned view as to the mode of the compo- 

 sition of the molecules. He gives it first as a result of observa- 

 tion, that ozone must have molecules of more atoms than ordi- 

 nary oxygen ; and in mentioning that a great number of chemists 

 and physicists now assume that in ordinary oxygen the molecules 

 are already diatomic, he says that, according to this assumption, 

 more than two molecules must be assigned to the molecules of 

 ozone. He first discusses, as an example, the simplest case, that 

 a molecule consists of three atoms, and then continues, " II est 

 clair que rien dans les faits connus ne prouve que Fozone resulte 

 du groupement de 3 atomes plutot que de 4, 5, &c. ; pour de- 

 terminer ce nombre il faudrait connaitre la densite de ce corps/' 

 In a note he says that, according to the experiments of St. -Claire 

 Deville and Troost, and of Bineau, the density of sulphur vapour 

 near its boiling-point is three times as great as at very high 

 temperatures; and that there is perhaps an analogy between 

 these two conditions of sulphur and the allotropic conditions of 

 oxygen, in which case such a molecular constitution must be pre- 

 supposed for ozone that its density is three times as great as that 

 of ordinary oxygen. Hence, if ordinary oxygen is diatomic, the 

 molecules of ozone are hexatomic. 



I think now that the conditions above adduced, following from 

 my explanation, which the complex molecules in ordinary oxygen 

 must fulfil, if they do not give bases for deciding with certainty 

 on the composition of the molecule, at any rate enable us to draw 

 certain conclusions as to the degree of probability of the different 

 possible constitutions. I will first of all consider ozone in the 

 restricted sense, which from its chemical and physical deportment 

 enables us to conclude that it consists of electro-negative atoms. 

 But since, according to my explanation, the active atoms are 

 contained as isolated atoms in the molecules, and as, further, 

 they must in the present case have the same electrical conditions, 

 it becomes more probable from these reasons that in one molecule 

 there is only one atom of ozone, than that there are several. 

 The case adduced as an example by Soret, in which the complex 

 molecule consists of 3 atoms, appears to me not only as valid as 

 that in which they consist of 4, 5, &c. atoms, but seems to me 

 much more probable. As far as regards the other special case ad- 

 duced by Soret, in which the molecules were to consist of 6 atoms, 

 I can from my point of view only consider it as very improbable. 



