SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
255 
follows from the foregoing, that in judicial inquiries Marsh’s test cannot 
he relied on, inasmuch as it is liable to a twofold error. Thus, if either 
from the sulphuric acid employed, or even from the suspected organic 
liquid, the smallest quantity of nitrous compound is developed, the solid 
and not the gaseous hydruret will be formed. Or again, if the sulphuric 
acid itself contains arsenic, an error of a common kind must be fallen into. 
The latter, however, has been known for some time. — See Blondlot’s Memoire 
in Comptes Rendus, lvii., p, 596. 
Non-existence of Wasium as a Simple Body. — Wasium was thought by 
M. Bahr to be constantly present in Norwegian orlhite ; this idea has been 
refuted in a note to the Academy of Sciences (Nov. 2nd), by M. J. Nicies. 
The latter chemist asserts that wasium is not a simple body, and that 
its supposed oxide is nothing more than that of Yttrium, coloured most 
probably by a little oxide of Terbium. This assertion is fully borne out 
by reference to the following reactions which take place in the two 
instances : — 
Reagent. Wasium. Yttrium. 
Oxalic acid white precipitate white precipitate. 
Ammonia an imperfect precipitate ...an imperfect precipitate. 
f white precipitateinsoluble \ white precipitate inso- 
in excess J 
Caustic potash . . . -^ 
Sulphate ofpotash{^st^ne white ^ preci- 1 crystal^ 
luble in excess. 
white 
preci- 
In the oxidising 
n 
and reducing ^-transparent globule transparent globule. 
flame -J- borax. J 
Volumetric Relations of Ozone. — It is satisfactory to find that the 
researches of our countrymen Tait and Andrews, though not universally 
accepted, have been fully corroborated by some recent researches of 
M. J. L. Loret. The latter, in a memoir presented to the Academie des 
Sciences, on the 5th of October last, details the results of a series of 
investigations upon this subject, and confirms, on all points, the conclu- 
sions of the English chemists. In order to test the alteration of volume in 
ozone under different conditions, he experimented on it with oxidisable 
substances, such as iodide of potassium and arsenite of soda, by means of 
heat and with caustic potash, whose action he finds to be distinct from that 
of oxidisable bodies. Caustic potash affects ozone somewhat in the same 
way as heat, and produces an unquestionable increase of volume. He 
explains the results obtained, by supposing that each molecule of ozone 
contains more than one atom of oxygen. Many chemists suppose that the 
ordinary molecule of oxygen in the gaseous state is formed by the union of 
two atoms, and is consequently an oxide of oxygen — 0 0. If this view be 
adopted, and it be supposed that ozone is an allotropic form of oxygen, then 
it follows that the molecule of ozone has a different arrangement of its 
parts. Experiment goes to show that this molecule is not composed of a 
single atom of oxygen, but that it consists of more than two atoms. It is 
possible that one molecule of ozone is composed of three atoms of oxygen ; 
so that, in fact, ozone is a binoxide of oxygen. The oxidising power of 
ozone, its constant volume when treated with oxidisable bodies, its expan- 
s 2 
