43 
form of oxygen, O. On the other hand, ozone or any ozonide can 
accomplish this change for the reason that any of these substances 
can supply 0, and platinum can accomplish this oxydation by common 
oxygen or hydrogen peroxide for the reason that it can transform 
common oxygen or the © of an antozonide into ozone, ©. This theory 
also enabled one to understand the catalytic decomposition of hydro- 
gen peroxide by platinum into water and common oxygen, since the 
ozone resulting from the action of the platinum on the antozonide 
would react with another portion of the antozonide, giving rise to 
water and common oxygen ( 382 ) : 
Pt + HO + © = Pt + HO + O, 
and 
HO + O + HO + © = 2HO + 20.° 
In 1857 Schoenbein published a paper on “Chemical contact ac- 
tions ’ ’ ( 379 ) , in which he discusses the action of various oxygen-carriers 
and oxidizing agents on guaiacum, and states that blood corpuscles 
separated from fibrin and serum and dissolved in water give the 
guaiacum reaction strongly in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, as 
does also the gluten of wheat, but that both are inactive in the ab- 
sence of the peroxide. He regards this oxygen-carrying power of 
blood corpuscles as important to respiration. In this article he also 
gives the results of experiments with platinum and guaiacum. Three 
years later he ( 381 ) called attention to the fact that iron salts act 
toward a mixture of guaiacum and hydrogen peroxide in much the 
same way as do blood corpuscles and that the activity of the blood 
corpuscles toward guaiacum is proportional to their content of 
hemoglobin, and that it therefore seemed not improbable that the 
guaiacum reaction of blood is dependent on the iron content of the 
pigments. This, he says, is a matter of importance to physiological 
chemists. 
In view of his previous work on the presence of oxygen exciters 
and oxygen carriers in certain of the higher fungi and in the potato, 
it was only natural that it should have occurred to Schoenbein, espe- 
cially in the light of the earlier observations of Planche, that sub- 
stances capable of bluing a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and guaia- 
cum and of decomposing hydrogen peroxide into water and common 
oxygen should be widely distributed in the plant and animal kingdom. 
The results of his investigations on the decomposition of hydrogen 
peroxide by plant and animal extracts and ferments and on the bluing 
of guaiacum by hydrogen peroxide through the agency of organic 
a A good discussion of Schoenbein’ s ozone and antozone theory is to be found in his 
paper on the “ Conduct of blood toward oxygen” ( 384 ), a translation of which is given 
in the Medical. Press and Circular, June 20 and July 4, 1866, and in Day’s paper ( 13s ) 
on “Polarized or allotropic oxygen,” in the Australian Medical Journal, vol. 12, 1867, 
pp. 141-149. 
