The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-19 00:00:00

OZONE.

Much has been said of late by scientific men on the goof
properties of ozone ; of the influence it has in adding to
the health-giving powers of country air and sea air. It
is well known that in towns ozone disappears ; that even
in the country or by the sea-side it only exists in the open
air, not within confined rooms ; and that in fact it seems
to exist precisely where men have been in the habit of
going for the sake of their health, and to vary
in quantity precisely according to the health-
supporting properties of different regions. Accord.
ingly, many are disposed to recognise the effects
of the peculiar element ozone in the accession
of health and vigour they derive from a change of air. It
has been placed beyond a doubt that the presence of ozone
in the air is incompatible with that of nearly all the
noxious gases which are apt to load the atmosphere'. The
very fact that ozone is absent from the air of crowded
cities gives proof of the sort of work in which it does
useful service. The fact is, ozone is used up in crowded
cities, and the particular process in which it is used up is
the removal of the noxious gases arising from the
decomposition of organic remains. If it is used up
without having completely got rid of the noxious gases—
as must very often be the case—the air will of course re-
main less pure than it should be. And when once the
air has parted with its ozone, no more attention to venti-
lation can be of service to health. Then come diseases
and infirmities, so that people have begun to think ozone
is everything for health. Unfortunately, however, there
is a reverse side to the picture. The Daily News calls
attention to it. Ozone periods, as they are termed—that
is, periods when the air is more than usually loaded with
ozone—are not (says our contemporary) altogether periods
of health. On the contrary, there are certain ugly diseases
which seem especially to affect the ozone seasons. Apoplexy
and epilepsy choose the ozone periods to work their
evil effects, nearly eighty per cent of the deaths due to
these causes occurring at such times. Catarrhal and
bronchial affections are also more common iu ozone
periods, though it has not yet been noticed that they are
more common at the sea-side or in the country than in
towns. In fact, ozone chemically introduced into the air
of a room has the power, when excessive in amount, of
causing all the symptoms of a cold in the head, and even
congestion of the lungs. It seems clear, therefore, that
we are not at present in any position to theorise respecting
the hygienic effects of ozone ; and certainly we cannot as
Yet ascribe to this element all the good effects we derive
from sea or country air.

A deputation from the Provincial Newspaper So-
ciety waited on Mr. Ayrton on IV ednesday with respect to the
registration of titles. The Secretary of the Treasury
said it was necessary for newspaper proprietors
anxious to secure a copyright of their titles to
enter them at the Stationers'-hall. The Copyright Act
contained stringent clauses by which proceedings might be
at once commenced on the charge of piracy. He promised
to use his influence with the Stationers' Company to offer to
newspaper proprietors the same facilities for searching the
registers at the hall as are offered by other establishments.
The Pendleton mystery was further investigated
on Tuesday by a coroner's jury. The body of the woman,
it will be remembered, was upon a previous occasion
declared to be that of ono Kate 3l'Donald, who
had been missing, but Mite ll‘Donald has since made
her app araanco. Nothing was stated on Tuesday to clear
up the question of identity. The medical evidence
was to the effect that the woman bad been killed before the
body was placed in the water, and the jury had no hesita-
tion in finding a verdict of wilful murder. A reward of
£5O has been offered for the discovery of the murderer or
murderers.

PUNNING EPIGRAM AND REPARTEE.—Metropo-
litan changes will soon render misty some of the best
things said by the poets. Now-a-days, few people under-
stand half the allusions in Gay's "Trivia," or Swift's
"City Shower." Presently, when the Thames Embank-
ment is completed, we shall lose the point of James
Smith's (of the " Rejected Addresses") epigram :
" In Craven-street, Strand, ten attorneys find place,
And ten dark coal barges are moor'd at its base;
Fly, Honesty, fly! seek some safer retreat,
For there's, craft in the river, and craft in the street."
To this Sir George Rose is said to have replied :
"Why should Honesty fly to some safer retreat,
From attorneys and barges, 'od rot 'em ?
For the lawyers are just at the top of the street,
And the barges are just at the bottom ! '
SHAKESPEARE'S OBSCUEITI ES. —A correspondent
of the New York Times writes as follows :—" Two or three
of the questions anent Shakespeare's obscurities raised by
the Edinburgh Review, and noticed in your columns to-day,
no not seem difficult of solution. Was the cruets laid on
Ophelia's bier anything else than the German kranz, her
maiden garland? Does not Benedek mean that if a lady
is not virtuous he will not seek to possess her, the word
' cheapen' being a usual buyer's phrase? Pistol's Tezo-
nian ' seems to Le the same word with the old French
bisngnon, derived from besoin, meaning a needy fellow, or
a seedy one. As to the epithet given to llegn, 'tender-
hefted,' hefted is au old form of hared, still traceable in
the privincial use of hefting' for lifting ; ' and tender-
hefted may perhaps mean lifted or swelled with kindness.
Wearing the rue " with a difference" is an expression taken
from heraldry, referring probably to the Queen's rank,
though without books at hand its precise technical mean-
ing escapes me. And as to the remaining questions, a
little comparison of like passages would probably elucidate
them. But will any one explain the passage of Isabella in
that noble but obscure play, Measure for Measure,' Act
2, scene 4 .

`Else my brother die.
If not a feodary, but only he,
Owe, and succeed by weakness,'
where the last clause confuses the possible BUM of the
first New York, August 4