38 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
atmospheric conditions of Ozone and non-Ozone periods are the 
same as those of the luminosity and non-luminosity of phos- 
phorus. Phosphorus becomes luminous and Ozone periods 
commence on the approach of storms, and if a storm sets in 
during a luminous or Ozone period, the luminosity increases in 
brilliancy and the Ozone in quantity. He also showed tables 
he had prepared from observations on the luminosity of phos- 
phorus, Ozone, and the prevalence of diseases in connection 
with the system of meteorological telegraphy, instituted by 
the late Admiral Fitzroy. From these it appeared that all the 
periods of luminosity commenced with the setting in of the 
atmospheric conditions, of the approach of which cautionary 
telegrams gave warning. Of diseases, 80 per cent, of 
apoplexy, epilepsy, and sudden death occurred on the days 
on which phosphorus became luminous. The atmospheric 
conditions which lead to those storms, of which the telegram 
gave warning, are invariably accompanied by diseases of the 
nervous, vascular, and muscular systems. During the two 
years in which those telegrams were sent, 143 cases of those 
diseases came under his notice; of which 54*5 per cent, took 
place on telegram days, and 45 ‘5 per cent, on other days 
similar in a meteorological sense to those on which the tele- 
grams were issued, differing only in degree, as the tables 
showed. Although storms are accompanied by diseases of 
some kinds, they are nevertheless, he maintained, of great 
benefit in a sanitary sense. They carry with them a supply 
-of nature's deodorizing and disinfecting agent — Ozone. As 
far as he had had opportunities of observing, he had come to 
the conclusion that cholera disappears with the setting in of 
the equatorial or ozoniferous current, as was the case at New- 
castle in 1853, and in the London epidemic. During a cholera 
epidemic the barometer readings are high, a calm prevails, and 
there is no Ozone. In conclusion, Dr. Moffatt asked whether, see- 
ing the intimate connection there is between periods of the lumi- 
nosity of phosphorus and Ozone periods, and of non-luminosity 
and non-ozone periods, and knowing that Ozone is formed by 
the action of phosphorus on moist air, we might not reasonably 
look to phosphorescence for the chief source of atmospheric 
Ozone ? It was a question whether we might not find phos- 
phorus a useful disinfectant by using it as a producer of 
artificial Ozone ? He had himself used phosphorus as a dis- 
infectant for four years. 
Must these suggested and suggestive triumphs of science be 
checked even by a doubt ? Alas ! the stern truth stands out, 
they must. 
They must stand at the bar and wait for the verdict, not 
because they are necessarily untrue, — not because they may 
