ways identical in its
properties; and these are described as numerous and remarkable. Its
odour is peculiar, resembling that of chlorine, and, when diluted,
cannot be distinguished from what is called the electric smell. When
largely diffused in atmospheric air, it causes unpleasant sensations,
makes respiration difficult, and, by acting powerfully on the mucous
membranes, produces catarrhal effects; and as such air will kill small
animals, it shews that pure ozone must be highly injurious to the
animal economy. It is insoluble in water, is powerfully electromotive,
and is most strikingly energetic in numerous chemical agencies, its
action on nearly all metallic bodies being to carry them at once to
the state of peroxide, or to their highest point of oxidation; it
changes sulphurets into sulphates, instantaneously destroys several
gaseous compounds, and bleaches indigo, thus shewing its analogy with
chlorine.

In proceeding to the account of his experiments, M. Schoenbein shews,
that gases can be produced by chemical means, which exercise an
oxidizing influence of a powerful nature, especially in their
physiological effects, even when diffused through the atmosphere in
very minute quantities: also, that owing to the immense number of
organic beings on the earth, their daily death and decomposition, an
enormous amount of gases is produced similar to those which can be
obtained by artificial means; and besides these, a quantity of gaseous
or volatile products, 'whose chemical nature,' as the author observes,
'is as yet unknown, but of which we can easily admit that some, at
least, diffused through the air, even in very small quantities, and
breathed with it, exert a most deplorable action on the animal
organism. Hence it follows, that the decomposition of organic matters
ought to be considered as one of the principal causes of the
corruption of the air by miasmatic substances. Now, a continuous
cause, and acting on so vast a scale, would necessarily diffuse
through the atmosphere a considerable mass of miasmatic gases, and
accumulate them till at length it would be completely poisoned, and
rendered incapable of supporting animal life, if nature had not found
the means of destroying these noxious matters in proportion as they
are produced.'

The question then arises: What are the means employed for this
object? M. Schoenbein believes that he has found it in the action of
ozone, which is continually formed by the electri