Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 455: Volume 18, New Series, September 18, 1852 — John Shaqi
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 455: Volume 18, New Series, September 18, 1852Various
History
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 455: Volume 18, New Series, September 18, 1852
Various
Periodicals
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 electricity of the
atmosphere, and is known to be a most powerful agent of oxidation,
causing serious modifications of organic bodies, and, consequently, of
their physiological action. 'To assure myself,' he pursues, 'that
ozone destroys the miasma arising from the decomposition of animal
matters, I introduced into a balloon containing about 130 pints of
air, a piece of flesh weighing four ounces, taken from a human corpse,
and in a very advanced state of putrefaction. I withdrew it after a
minute; the air in the balloon had acquired a strong and very
repulsive odour, shewing that it was charged with an appreciable
quantity--at least for the smell--of miasm caused by the putrefaction.
'To produce ozone, I introduced into the infected balloon a stick of
phosphorus an inch long, with water sufficient to half cover it. At
the same time, for the sake of comparison, I placed a similar quantity
of phosphorus and water in another balloon full of pure atmospheric
air. After some minutes, the reaction of ozone in the latter was most
evidently manifested, while no trace of it was yet apparent in the
former, which still gave off an odour of putrefaction. This, however,
disappeared completely at the end of ten or twelve minutes, and
immediately the reaction of the ozone was detected.'
The conclusion drawn from this experiment is, that the ozone destroyed
the miasm by oxidation, and could only make its presence evident after
the complete destruction of the noxious volatile substances. This
effect is more strikingly shewn by another experiment.
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