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the contrary, influenza is not produced by thunderstorms, or other 
electrical disturbances, during which ozone is abundantly evolved. 
Nor do influenzas, or other catarrhal affections, appear among those 
employed in working friction, or hydro-electric machines, even when 
these are of large size, and are worked for several days, with con- 
stant evolution of large quantities of ozone, distinctly perceptible 
to the nostrils. Indeed, ozone, so far from being a cause of disease, 
has been suggested by Dr. George Wilson as being a most valuable 
preventive of disease, as being, in fact, Nature’s own disinfectant, 
which has kept the air pure, and, to a great extent, free from poi- 
sonous matters, for many thousands of years. The probability of this 
opinion is greatly strengthened by the fact that ozone has the power 
of destroying organic colouring matters, of arresting putrefaction, 
and of removing disagreeable effluvia — properties closely allied to 
those of disinfectants. But, independently altogether of what has 
been said, it appears highly improbable that influenza, or indeed 
any wide-spread disease, could be caused by sulphuretted hydrogen, 
ozone, or any gaseous substance whatever ; for such gases would, in 
virtue of the law of gaseous diffusion, speedily become so diluted as 
to be quite innocuous, would be very apt to be altered in com- 
position by the ordinary constituents of the atmosphere, would 
almost certainly be destroyed by the disinfectants in common use, 
and so far as they did spread, would spread regularly and equably. 
From this it will be obvious, that influenza cannot owe its develop- 
ment to any gaseous principle, for in its visitations, whether among 
men or beasts, it has propagated itself in all kinds of weather, and 
in spite of all sanatory precautions, and has often spread very irre- 
gularly and unequally, affecting sometimes the inhabitants of one 
side of a street, or one portion of a parish, and leaving other con- 
tiguous parts unaffected, Such phenomena appear quite inconsistent 
with the propagation of a disease depending on any substance in a 
gaseous form. But our atmosphere contains many other matters 
besides gases and inorganic substances. It wafts about many 
organic matters, derived from both plants and animals, usually in 
the state of a fine powder or pollen-like dust, and sometimes sensible 
to sight and smell. Much of this is of vegetable nature, but 
Ehrenberg has also shown the presence of animalcules. Dr. T. 
Thompson, in his ‘ Annals of Influenza pp. 383-4, remarks : 
“ Phenomena, having reference to disturbed conditions of vegetable 
or animal life, have been repeatedly recorded as occurring during 
influenza years, such, for example, as blights of particular trees, 
‘blood rain,’ ‘bloody snow,’ plagues of mice, and remarkable flights 
of locusts, grasshoppers, and other insects. The prevalence or defi- 
ciency of particular tribes of insects in certain years, their sudden 
arrival or temporary disappearance in individual places, may here- 
after be ascertained to hold relations with conditions tending to 
modify, in the aggregate, the vital energies of the human race. In 
attempting to trace the economy of nature, is it unreasonable to 
imagine that some fluctuations in the health of man, may have refe- 
rence to disturbance in the proportions, or to changes in the condi- 
