278 Chronicles of Science. [April, 



hydrogen he estimates in another portion of the water, by means of a 

 standard solution of permanganate of potash. 



The foregoing will show the general method pursued in this inte- 

 resting inquiry, and we need only remark further, that in none of the 

 experiments was a proportion of peroxide of hydrogen found exactly 

 equivalent to the oxide of lead. But this is clearly shown to be a 

 consequence of the rapid decomposition of the peroxide. 



Schonbein has also studied the behaviour of oxygen to other 

 metals, bismuth, nickel, cobalt, thallium, &c, and with these also has 

 arrived at facts which support his theory of chemical polarization. In 

 connection with these experiments he gives a new and most delicate 

 test for peroxide of hydrogeu. To water supposed to contain that 

 body he adds one or two drops of a salt solution of one of the above- 

 named metals, and then a few drops of potash just sufficient to pre- 

 cipitate the hydrated oxide of the metal. He now adds a very small 

 quantity of solution of starch with iodide of potassium ; and lastly, a 

 drop or two of acetic or dilute sulphuric acid. If, now, the merest 

 trace of the peroxide is present, the mixture is instantly coloured blue. 



Important as Schonbein's investigations are to general chemistry, 

 they have a far greater importance when considered in relation to 

 physiological chemistry. The author considers that oxygen undergoes 

 chemical polarization in the body when respired, and would thus 

 account for the active changes which take place in the tissues. He 

 has not yet succeeded in detecting the presence of peroxide of 

 hydrogen in the blood, but he has shown that blood corpuscles 

 instantly decompose the compound. He has, however, found it in 

 urine, and explains by its presence the rapid oxidization of that fluid. 

 Altogether these researches of Schonbein must be regarded as some 

 of the most important on which chemists are engaged. 



Since the above was printed we have seen it announced that Schon- 

 bein has succeeded in isolating both ozone and antozone, the two 

 bodies of which ordinary oxygen is composed. Antozone has a density 

 less than that of hydrogen, and therefore is the lightest body known. 

 It liquifies at a pressure of 150 atmospheres. The two gases com- 

 bine with explosion when exposed to the dark rays of the spectrum, 

 and ordinary oxygen is reconstituted. This decomposition of a gase- 

 ous element must be regarded as one of the greatest chemical dis- 

 coveries ever made, and we impatiently wait for a confirmation of the 

 statement. 



Sulphur is a body credited with several allotropic modifications, 

 which, however, seem rather to affect its physical condition than its 

 chemical properties, but the latter are to some extent changed. Thus 

 Dietzenbacher has recently shown that by fusing only iioth part of 

 iodine with sulphur, the mass, after cooling, remains soft and plastic, and 

 moreover has become insoluble in sulphide of carbon. More recently 

 the same author, in conjunction with M. Moutier, has discovered* that 

 many organic substances also possess the same power of modifying the 

 condition of sulphur. Naphthaline, camphor, creosote, oil of turpen- 

 tine, and even carbon alone, render it soft and plastic, and partially 

 insoluble in sulphide of carbon. Wax and oil also render it soft, but 

 * ' Coruptes Rendus,' t. lx. p. 353. 



