Abstract
AT a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the 1st inst, a communication was read from Mr. Dewar and Dr. M'Kendrick on the physiological action of ozone. The authors, in-the first place, pointed out that little was known regarding the action of this substance, except its peculiar smell and the irritating effect it had on the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract. Schonbein had shown that a mouse died in five minutes in an atmosphere highly charged with ozone; and it was this distinguished investigator who asserted that there was a relation between the quantity of ozone in the air and the prevalence of epidemic diseases. The action of ozone was therefore a subject to be elucidated; and having occasion to employ ozone in another experimental inquiry, the authors resolved to investigate the matter. The ozone was made by passing a current of dry air or oxygen from a gasometer through a narrow glass tube, bent for convenience like the letter U, about 3 ft. in length, and containing a platinum wire 2 ft. in length, which had been inserted into the interior of the tube, and one end of whtch communicated with the outside through the wall of the tube. Round the whole external surface of this U-shaped tube, a spiral of copper wire was coiled, and the induction current from a coil giving half-inch sparks was passed between the external copper to the internal platinum wire, so as to have the platinum wire as the negative pole in the interior of the tube. After the stream of gas was ozonised by the transmission of the induction current, it was washed by passing through a bulb-tube containing caustic potash, when air was employed, or water when pure oxygen was used, in order to eliminate any traces of nitrous and nitric acids that might have been formed. By means of the gasometer, the volume of gas passing through the tube could be ascertained.
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On the Physiological Action of Ozone . Nature 9, 104–105 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/009104a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/009104a0