238 Proceedings of the British Association. 



of iodide of starch. Bromide of potassium was also decomposed by 

 this principle, and bromine liberated. Salts of iron were shown to 

 undergo the same changes. A number of organic bodies, both 

 vegetable and animal, destroy the ozonous smell. If ozonized air be 

 made to pass through a tube, and this tube gently heated, all the 

 properties of ozone are destroyed. This was shown by experiment. 

 By the inspiration of ozone, similar effects are produced on the 

 lungs to those resulting from chlorine and bromine. A mouse was 

 killed in five minutes, and the experimentalist himself was seriously 

 affected by breathing an atmosphere charged with this odour. By 

 electrolysis, gold or platina points are necessary for the development 

 of ozone. The electrical brush in all cases produces the same effects 

 as those above described; all the decompositions can be produced, 

 and the same smell is distinctly evident. In this case, as in the other, 

 heat and some of the metals also destroy the odour. Endeavours 

 have been made to procure ozone in an isolated state, but they have 

 not been successful. Ozone, although at first supposed to be an 

 elementary body, was afterwards considered as a compound of oxygen 

 and hydrogen. The fact of heat destroying this peculiar odour, at 

 once shows, that this principle is produced from the elimination 

 of an oxygen compound from the decomposition of water. This is 

 quite in accordance with the views entertained by Mariniac, who has 

 pursued the investigation with great industry, and who has published 

 a memoir, in which his views are luminously set forth. The author 

 of this report is of opinion, that ozone will turn out to be a compound 

 isomeric with the binoxide of water. A theoretical view of the 

 production of this body was then entered into. The ordinary action 

 of phosphorus undergoing oxydation in the atmospheric air was ex- 

 plained, and the remarkable fact stated, that although phosphorus was 

 luminous in moist air, it was not so in perfectly dry air. Ozone may 

 now, therefore, although long regarded by Prof. Schonbein as an 

 elementary body, be looked upon as, in all probability, a tritoxide of 

 hydrogen. Its bleaching properties are very remarkable, and it may 

 possibly be of considerable practical utility. 



* Experiments on the Spheroidal State of Bodies, and its Applica- 

 tion to Steam Boilers, and on the Freezing of Water in Red-hot 

 Vessels/ by Prof. Boutigny. — Prof. Boutigny, who made his com- 



