366 Antozone and Peroxide of Hydrogen , [June, 
But the great French chemist showed that the body dis- 
solved in the acid electrolyte did not exhibit the reactions 
characteristic of peroxide of hydrogen : it did not decompose 
potassium permanganate (Brodie’s test), nor oxidise chromic 
to perchromic acid (BarreswiFs test), nor convert calcium 
hydrate into an insoluble peroxide in alkaline solution (Ber- 
thelot’s test ?). He demonstrated that it contained in 
solution the same oxide of sulphur which he had previously 
formed as a beautifully crystalline body by the long-conti- 
nued exposure of dry ozone and dry sulphurous acid to the 
adtion of the silent eleCtric discharge,— Berthelot’s per- 
sulphuric anhydride, S 2 0 7 . Finally, during the course of 
the vear just passed, Schone has demonstrated, in his ela- 
borate research upon the behaviour of peroxide of hydrogen 
towards the galvanic current (1879), that in the electrolysis of 
water no hydrogen peroxide is formed. 
Will the same be found to be true of Schonbein’s state- 
ment, that in the oxidation of phosphorus exposed to moist 
air, along with ozone, a by no means inconsiderable quantity 
of peroxide of hydrogen is formed ? This point was inves- 
tigated by the author in the course of a research into the 
by-produas obtained in the ozonation of air by phosphorus, 
with the result of confirming Schonbein’s observation. The 
amount of hydrogen peroxide was determined by analysis of 
the water employed in washing the ozonised gas, the iodine 
liberated by the washed gas being attributed entirely to the 
decomposition effected in a neutral solution of potassium 
iodide by the ozone. The proportion of hydrogen peroxide 
to the ozone, as determined by this method, was only one 
to four hundred. But later the author has investigated the 
subject, estimating not only the hydrogen peroxide held back 
in solution, but the entire amount present in the ozonised 
gas, and has found that its proportion to that of the ozone 
may exceed one to three. The two substances, as Schone 
has pointed out, may be present in the same vessel in quite 
a concentrated form, for a long interval, without effecting a 
complete mutual decomposition, and when highly dilute may 
coexist for hours. . . 
One question of very great interest still remains Is per- 
oxide of hydrogen present in the atmosphere ? As yet, except as 
an inference from other meteoric phenomena, there is no 
evidence that it is. Meissner (1863), Schonbein (1868), 
Struve and Schmid (1869), and Goppelsroder (1871), believed 
that they had succeeded in demonstrating the presence of 
peroxide of hydrogen in rain. Houzeau, whose authority in 
matters of chemical climatology no one would feel disposed 
