Am.  Jour  Pharm.  j    Some  Studies  on  the  Oxy-pmenes.  203 
May,  1915.       J  J  1 
John  S.  Townsend,  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Cambridge  Philo- 
sophical Society,  January  13,  1899  (vol.  10,  p.  5),  says:  "The 
cloud  which  is  formed  when  ozone  is  bubbled  through  turpentine 
differs  on  some  points  from  those  which  are  described  above  (potas- 
sium iodide  vapors).  It  can  be  shown  .  .  .  that  the  cloud  is  due 
to  the  action  of  ozone  on  turpentine  vapor.  ...  In  the  case  of  the 
cloud  formed  with  turpentine  its  intensity  is  not  diminished  to  any 
marked  extent  by  bubbling  through  sulphuric  acid ;  so  that  we  see 
that  the  main  constituent  is  turpentine." 
This  seems  to  prove  that  the  vapor  which  Dr.  Waters  uses  was 
known  not  only  to  Townsend,  but  to  the  general  scientific  world  at 
that  time,  and  is  identical  with  the  one  described  by  Soret  thirty- 
four  years  previously. 
If  we  adopt  the  definition  given  in  most  text-books  and  dic- 
tionaries, that  "  peroxide  is  that  oxide  of  a  given  base  which  con- 
tains the  greatest  quantity  or  an  unusual  amount  of  oxygen,"  then 
we  can  hardly  speak  of  a  peroxide  of  a  hydrocarbon,  and  decidedly 
not  in  the  case  of  pinene,  as  nobody  yet  has  been  able  to  set  the  limit  to 
the  amount  of  oxygen  which  can  be  absorbed  by  oil  of  turpentine. 
If,  again,  we  mean  with  an  organic  peroxide  such  as  oxy-com- 
pound  wdiich  forms  metallic  peroxides,  then  this  difficulty  of  distin- 
guishing between  peroxide  and  ozonide  is  quite  explainable,  for  the 
ozonide  has  also  the  power  of  forming  metallic  peroxides. 
This  uncertainty  regarding  the  nature  of  oxy-pinene  was  really 
not  quite  cleared  up  until  Dr.  Harries  and  his  disciples  began  their 
splendid  investigations  of  the  ozonides,  to  which  I  will  refer  later  on. 
In  concluding  this  little  historical  sketch  of  the  literature  on 
ozonides  of  turpentine,  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  New  York  Public 
Library,  I  will  quote  from  an  article  by  Dr.  Debierre,  which  appeared 
in  the  American  Meteorological  Journal,  April,  1887  (vol.  3,  p.  575)  : 
"  Schoenbein,  in  1850,  proposed  the  use  of  ozonized  oil  of  turpentine 
for  pulmonary  diseases.  Seitz  employed  this  preparation  of  turpen- 
tine with  success,  it  is  said,  in  chronic  catarrh  of  the  urinary  organs, 
and  even  in  hematuria  and  incontinence  of  urine.  Thompson  em- 
ployed ozone  and  fatty  oils  in  phthisis  with  good  results,  probably 
due  to  the  oil." 
As  will  be  seen,  the  ozonide  of  pinene  has  been  known  for  a  long 
time,  and  there  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  as  the  chemistry  and  nature 
of  the  oxy-pinenes  in  general  will  be  better  understood  their  thera- 
peutic use  will  vastly  increase. 
