The physiological influence of ozone

Ozone has been extolled as the active health-giving agent in mountain and sea air, its virtues have been vaunted as a therapeutic agent, until these have, by mere reiteration, become part and parcel of common belief; and yet exact physiological evidence in favour of its good effects has been hitherto almost entirely wanting. Ozone has been found occasionally in traces in the atmosphere, it has been proved to have active oxidising properties, and on these facts the superstructure of its therapy has been reared. Popular attention has been fixed on the mysterious and the unknown, and has neglected the prepotent power of cold wind and sunlight to influence the nervous health and metabolism of man. The only thoroughly well-ascertained knowledge concerning the physiological effect of ozone, so far attained, is that it causes irritation and œdema of the lungs, and death if inhaled in relatively strong concentration for any time, e. g., 0·05 per cent., death in two hours (Schwarzenbach); 1 per cent. In one hour (Barlow).