ON OZONE IN RELATION TO HEALTH AND DISEASE. 33 
entirely redissolved as a result of alkaline decomposition. At 
tke close of the year, the whole mass was as fluid as port wine, 
and was most offensive to the sense of smell. The stopper 
was placed in the bottle, and the bottle itself was put aside. 
In the year 1862, the bottle was taken from its hiding-place, 
and an ounce of the blood was withdrawn. The fluid was so 
offensive as to produce nausea when the gases evolved from it 
were inhaled. It was subjected by Dr. Wood and myself to a 
current of Ozone from Siemens’s cylinder. For a few minutes 
the odour of Ozone was destroyed by the odour of the gases 
from the blood ; gradually the offensive smell passed away ; 
then the fluid mass became quite Sweet, and at last a faint 
odour of Ozone was detected, whereupon the current was 
stopped. The blood was thus entirely deodorized, but another 
and most singular phenomenon was observed. The dead 
blood coagulated as the products of decomposition were re- 
moved, and this so perfectly, that from the new clot that was 
formed serum exuded. Before the experiment commenced, I 
had predicted on theoretical grounds that the phenomenon of 
secondary coagulation must follow upon purification, and this 
experiment, as well as several others afterwards performed, 
verified the truth of the prediction . 
We gather from this experiment, then, the first funda- 
mental fact I would like to impress, that the substance called 
Ozone energetically destroys the putrid emanations of decom- 
posing animal substances, and, even after they are long dead, 
restores to the dead matter certain of its properties which, 
though in truth they are always physical, are vulgarly called 
vital. We might turn this fact to some great account in the 
matter of decomposing animal food. If the butcher were a 
scientific man, he could at little expense restore to wholesome 
freshness and purity the greater portion of the decomposing 
carcases, which now, at bad seasons of the year for preser- 
vation, he is obliged to cast away as a nuisance. 
I have put forward these effects produced on dead matter 
by Ozone in its concentrate form that the facts may impress 
the mind forcibly and sharply, for the light we possess leaves 
no obscurity here; and now we may venture a step further, 
and show the same series of effects as progressing on the 
largest scale, not artificially or by human experiment, but uni- 
versally, with nature herself as the experimentalist. By some 
grand process Ozone is produced in the atmospheric sea which 
surrounds our planet. It is estimated to exist naturally in the 
proportion of one part of Ozone to ten thousand parts of air. 
I cannot vouch for the entire accuracy of this computation, 
because the amount, according to our present mode of esti- 
mating it, seems to fluctuate, and no sufficient number of 
VOL. V. — NO. XVIII. D 
