EEYIEWS. 
191 
THE NATUEAL HISTOEY OF OZONE.* 
A S tlie writer of tlie present work kas observed, a succinct account of all 
tbe results that bave been arrived at in regard to ozone is required. 
Eut then tbe question comes, by whom is sucb a labour earnestly 
demanded ? — and in answer to tbis we certainly should tbink that the 
chemists, and not tbe general public, are tbe special audience to which sucb 
a volume as tbe present one ought to be addressed. Perhaps we may be 
wrong in supposing so, but we imagine that tbe subject has not been suffi- 
ciently worked out to establish its ends beyond all question j and that 
therefore it is wrong to introduce to tbe general public a series of problems, 
which, for all we know, may eventually be regarded somewhat in the same 
light as we are accustomed to view the earlier efforts of the chemical 
world as regards the function of oxygen. However, we confess that this 
conjecture may have nothing in the world to support it ; and admitting the 
justification for publishing such a book as that which Hr. Fox has offered 
us, we are bound to confess at the outset that it is admirably got up. If 
we overlook certain peculiarities of the author — such, for instance, as his 
method of grouping the title of his work and the signature to the preface, 
which is accomplished by the musical letters and come to con- 

sider the labour which he has bestowed on the book, the excellent account 
he has given of most scientific researches conducted on the Continent and at 
home, the admirably convenient and enormously expensive side-notes 
which he has given, and finally the number of excellent charts and illustra- 
tions which he has ^tppended to the volume, we are bound to say that the 
essay leaves very little to be desired. If we leave aside consideration of Dr. 
Fox’s remarks concerning the observations of Homer on this subject, which 
we confess do not strike us as of much importance, and come to the subject 
of ozone itself, we think we shall do well. In this chapter the author 
enters upon an historical account of the earliest observations on the subject, 
and we think he very justly regards Schonbein as the first discoverer of 
this substance. He then passes on to the observations of Williamson on 
ozone ; next he travels through the successive examinations made by a 
great host of English and Continental chemists, and he lays stress upon 
the investigations of the Irish philosopher Andrews, as being one of the most 
important of all the great series of researches that the subject of ozone has 
called forth. All these inquiries, he says, show that ozone is ‘^simply a 
condensed or allotropic form of oxy^gen,” which is simply correct, save that 
the word allotropic by no means involves the condensation of the substance 
to which it is adjectively conjoined. We do not think that antozone is as 
clearly established as Dr. Fox would have us believe ; still we accept his 
statement, made on very good authority, that ^ffit is regarded as a modifi- 
cation of oxygen, to which belongs the power of oxidising water and con- 
verting it into the peroxide of hydrogen, with the simultaneous development 
* ^‘.Ozone and Antozone ; their History and Nature. When, where, why, 
how, is Ozone observed in the Atmosphere?” Elustrated with engravings, 
&c. By Cornelius B. Fox, M.D. London : J. and A. Churchill, 1873. 
