REVIEW. 
309 
much better qualified to fulfil the object here contemplated. 
By employing a number of small, shallow vessels, such as 
saucers, of white ware, containing a graduated series of per¬ 
manganate solutions of various determined strengths, and 
leaving them exposed during the requisite period of time, a 
tolerably fair estimate may be formed of the average state 
of the air. 
Although the application of the alkaline permanganates 
to the testing of the atmosphere is but in its infancy, says 
Mr. Condy, and leaves room for improvement as regards 
the mechanical appliances which are necessary for very 
accurate results, the scientific principle on which it is based 
is as certain and reliable as any chemical reaction. He 
concludes by observing— 
“ It is a circumstance greatly in favour of the familiar use of the alka’ 
line permanganates for the purification of air, that the chemical composi¬ 
tion of those salts, by qualifying them to neutralize organic impurities in 
whatever form they occur, renders them in a remarkable manner fitted 
for afiTording topical protection against the septic influences of foul air, as 
well as for most of the purposes of domestic and bodily ablution. Though 
not calculated to take the place of soap, they will be found extremely 
useful as supplementary detergents to that familiar article, as well as in 
a great variety of cases in which soap is not qualified to produce the 
desired results. More or less diluted with water, the alkaline perman¬ 
ganates furnish the most efficient means of purifying household utensils 
of all kinds, and of removing from them every vestige of taint and odour. 
Being entirely without noxious effects on the human frame, they are 
equally well adapted for the purification of the person. Used in the 
ordinary ablutions, and in the bath and bidet, these highly ozonized sub¬ 
stances add greatly to the cleansing effects of water, and thus promote 
- purity and healthy freshness of body. While, therefore, the alkaline per¬ 
manganates, on the one hand, are capable of securing the purification of 
the air from those unwholesome contaminations which endanger health, 
on the other, they are, by reason of their remarkable disinfecting proper¬ 
ties, admirably qualified for restraining and counteracting all those foul 
and morbid conditions of organized bodies in which aerial impurities have 
their origin.” 
Our apology, if any be required, for this double review is 
the interesting matter contained in the pamphlet, of which 
we have necessarily left much unnoticed. 
