SIE B. C. BEODIE ON THE ACTION OF ELECTEICITT ON GASES. 
91 
showing a diminution in the amount of oxygen, due to the absorption of that gas by 
the alkaline solution in the absorption-bulb or to some equivalent cause, of somewhat 
over 4 per cent. Another cause operating in the same direction as the preceding is the 
absorption of oxygen by the alkaline solution of iodide of potassium, which (as appears 
from my previous experiments) although very small in amount is yet an appreciable 
quantity. 
As the question of the identity of the ozone thus formed, by the action of electricity 
on carbonic acid with the ozone similarly formed from oxygen is of great importance in 
relation to the present inquiry, and as the comparison of the diminution in volume which 
the electrized gas undergoes when passed through neutral hyposulphite of soda with 
the “titre” of the gas affords the most satisfactory evidence we can apply to establish 
or negative this identity, I do not hesitate to lay before the Society the results of a set 
of experiments in which the diminution in volume which the electrized gas undergoes 
when passed through hyposulphite of soda is calculated on both hypotheses : — (1) on the 
hypothesis that the total oxygen formed in the induction-tube is equal to the “ titre ” 
of the gas together with the gas absorbed by pyrogallate of potash, and (2) on the 
hypothesis that the total oxygen is equal to the contraction which the gas after its 
passage through hyposulphite of soda undergoes on detonation with oxygen. These 
results are given in the two following Tables ; the experiments to which the same number 
is attached are comparable with each other, having been made with different portions of 
the same gas. 
In column I. of the first Table given below is given the “ titre ” of the gas ; in 
column II. V 1? the volume absorbed by pyrogallate of potash in the case of the experi- 
ment with hyposulphite of soda — that is to say, the oxygen present in the gas after its 
passage through the solution of hyposulphite by this mode of estimation. In column III. 
is given the sum of the “ titre” of the gas and the oxygen absorbed by pyrogallate in the 
case of the experiment with iodide of potassium — that is, the total oxygen formed in the 
induction-tube by this method of estimation. In column IY. is given the difference of 
these volumes — that is to say, the gas absorbed by hyposulphite of soda according to this 
mode of estimation, Y— Vj ; and in column V. is given the ratio of this difference to the 
titre ” of the gas, r= — ijr- 1 - 
I. 
Experiment. 
I. 
T. 
II. 
Yi- 
III. 
V. 
IV. 
V-V r 
-5 
II 
HI * 
1. 
1-61 
7-91 
12-60 
4-69 
2-91 
2. 
3-38 
9-74 
18-98 
9-24 
2-71 
3. 
3-43 
8-87 
17*34 
9-47 
2-76 
4. 
1-94 
9-53 
14-96 
5-43 
2-80 
5. 
4-34 
9-91 
20-41 
10-50 
2-42 
Mean=2-72 
