1867.] Physics. 441 



known, we can form a very clear idea of the work performed by 

 the portion of the current which traverses the globule. If the 

 inclination be progressively augmented, a moment arrives at 

 which equilibrium is established between the force of the cur- 

 rent which tends to make the mercury ascend and the action 

 of the weight which causes it to descend, the globule resting 

 stationary, but elongated. It is subject to a very apparent interior 

 movement, and takes a rotatory motion, first in one direction, then 

 in another. The same experiment can be made by means of 

 a Euhmkorff's coil. As the currents furnished by this apparatus 

 are alternately in contrary directions, a commutator is necessary to 

 suppress the inverse current. It is important to remark that the 

 conductivity of the transported material is one of the necessary 

 conditions of the movement ; a globule of bisulphide of carbon in- 

 troduced into the tube is insensible to the passage of the current. 

 These experiments have a close similarity with those which Mr. 

 Gore, F.B.S., described before the Eoyai Society some years ago. 



The Abbe Moigno has brought forward a claim to be the first 

 to make known the nature and application of the mysterious agent, 

 ozone. In 1845, on the first news of the curious observations of 

 M. Schonbein, he says he proceeded to Basle and visited this 

 celebrated chemist. The abbe then wrote to the ' Epoque ' a letter, 

 inserted on December 31, in which the following very important 

 passage occurs : — " It is necessary to return immediately to the 

 ideas of Ampere, and consider the atoms of bodies as having two 

 states — first, with the essential primitive electricity or in a nascent 

 state; second, with their electricity more or less disseminated, or 

 their atmosphere of electricity in a neutral state. The ozone of 

 M. Schonbein is, in our eyes, only a molecule of oxygen in a 

 nascent state, with only negative electricity in its atmosphere. I 

 am, I think, able to rigorously prove and account for the wonderful 

 properties of this agent that we cannot lay hold of, and of which so 

 much has been said." The abbe says that he asks all chemists of 

 that time, and Dr. Thomas Andrews, of Belfast, in particular, 

 whether at that period any one had so clearly defined the essential 

 nature of ozone : so much talked about, written upon, and discussed 

 without any decided conclusion being arrived at. Two years after- 

 wards the same reverend author asserted in the ' Nouvelle Kevue 

 Encyclopedique ' of M. Didot, for July, 1847, the following more 

 explicit statement : — " Sufficient attention has not been yet paid to 

 the important fact that oxygen disengaged by plants is not in a 

 neutral state. We are perfectly convinced that this nascent oxygen, 

 without its positive atmosphere, is the ozone discovered by M. 

 Schonbein, with an odour sui generis, and possessing, in the 

 highest degree, all the properties of electro-negative substances. 

 The bleaching of linen stuffs, ivory, wax, &c, in the open air, on 



VOL. IV. 2 G 



