DISOXIDATION EFPECTED BY THE ALKALINE PEEOXIDES. 
859 
the decomposition of alcohol into ether and water. And we may regard the former 
event as determined by a series of alternate and inverse changes, analogous to those to 
which Williamson has shown the phenomena of etherification to be due, according to 
the equations 
CugO +Na2 02=Cu2 02*+Na2 O, 
Na2 O 2 +CU 2 02=Na2 O +CU 2 O+O 2 . 
It may be desirable, for the sake of clearness, to resume the points in the preceding 
argument. It appears, (I) that by means of the alkaline peroxides we can produce two 
classes of effects, oxidation and reduction, and this double function is peculiar to this 
group of peroxides. (2) These peroxides are decomposed by the contact of a great 
number of chemical substances, and this form of decomposition is also peculiar to the 
group. (3) The combination of an oxidizing with a reducing action is a cause adequate 
to produce the results of contact decomposition, and we are able, in certain cases, to 
imitate, as it were, the contact action by means of a successive oxidation and reduction. 
(4) There are instances in which we have distinct evidence that the contact decompo- 
sition is accompanied by an oxidation and subsequent reduction of the substance by 
which the action is determined. 
In a matter so difficult to submit to the direct test of experiment, it is undoubtedly 
desirable to offer any view with much reservation ; and it would be altogether premature 
to assert that this is the only form which contact decomposition can assume. Other 
causes may possibly lead to the same result. At the same time every new case which 
can be explained on these principles increases the probability of their more extended 
application, and raises the hope that even these obscure phenomena will ultimately be 
removed from the domain of conjecture and speculation, and be brought under the 
methods of experimental research. 
* The oxide of copper here formed is probably the sesquioxide, which is also procured by the action of 
alkaline hypochlorites on the hydrated oxide of copper. The precise nature of this oxide is immaterial to 
the argument. 
