419 
of Edinburgh, Session 1864 - 65 . 
On the contrary, antozone appears, from the experiments of 
Meissner, to be more stable in the presence of ozone than when 
mixed with ordinary oxygen. 
The following fact may possibly be considered analogous. An 
aqueous solution of peroxide of hydrogen (an electro-positive com- 
pound) is rendered more stable by the addition of an acid, an 
electro-negative compound, but less stable by the addition of alkalies. 
Also, since oxygen is essentially an electro-negative element, 
we can easily understand why antozone, which we may look upon 
as containing electro-positive oxygen, gradually decomposes, and is 
changed into ordinary oxygen, as observed by Meissner. And we 
can, on the contrary, understand why ozone is a comparatively 
stable compound. 
Schdnhein has shown that peroxide of hydrogen is produced in 
many cases of slow oxidation occurring in the presence of moisture. 
This is commonly attributed to the formation of antozone, which 
subsequently combines with water to form peroxide of hydrogen. 
In the author’s view, however, the peroxide of hydrogen is the 
immediate product of the reaction. 
In the oxidation of zinc, for instance, 
-f- — ^ — .j. 
Zn^ -p 0 0 + 0 H 2 = Zn^ 0 -t- 0 0 Hg. 
Supposing that this view of the constitution of antozone is con- 
firmed by further investigation, it will afford a strong support to 
the theory that the elements in the free state are formed by the 
combination of two atoms in opposite electrical states, as well as 
of the electrical theory of chemical affinity. 
Some persons find great difficulty in the supposition that oxygen 
can combine with itself to form compounds differing entirely in 
properties from ordinary oxygen. There is, however, in reality no 
greater difficulty in this supposition than in other admitted cases 
where a compound combines with itself to form other compounds. 
Methylene, for instance, when liberated from iodide of methylene 
by the action of copper and water, combines with itself to form 
ethylene and tritylene, as shown by M. Boutlerow. Tritylene, in 
fact, bears to ethylene a somewhat similar relation to that which 
ozone and antozone bear to oxygen. Again, oxygen, in the language 
of modern chemistry, is a polyatomic element ; and it is a well- 
