236 
PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SECTION. 
April 24th, 1877. 
Alfred Brothers, F.B.A.S., in the Chair. 
“ ‘ Chambers’s J ournal’ and Ozone,” by Thomas Mac- 
KERETH, F.R.A.S., F.M.S. 
It is a pity that many of onr popular journals cannot 
either let science alone or state correctly and with proper 
authority what it teaches. I have frequently, from such 
periodicals, seen the most absurd nonsense set forth as 
scientific fact. Either the writer of such articles does not 
understand the subject about which he is writing, or is wil- 
fully disposed, for reasons best known to himself, to pervert 
the knowledge that has been attained. My attention has 
been drawn to two numbers of “ Chambers’s Journal,” the 
one published for June 30th, 1876, and the other for March 
31st, 1877. Both these numbers contain articles on ozone, 
and they are, to say the least of them, the strangest jumble 
of facts and imagination I ever remember reading. 
I would draw attention to the fact that on the 12th of 
October, 1875, Mr. Baxendell, F.KA.S., read a paper before 
this section “ On a Source of Atmospheric Ozone,” and that 
on the 29th of February, 1866, Mr. J. B. Dancer, F.R.A.S., 
read a paper before the section on “An Account of some 
early Experiments with Ozone, and Remarks upon its Elec- 
trical Origin.” To do full justice to these gentlemen in 
what I am about to notice I ought to quote more extensively 
than I shall from those excellent papers. Mr. Baxendell 
states, and I quote from his paper first, because it was the 
first read, that 
