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organ - the retina". A further brief paper concluded their account of their physiological enquiries. A few months later the duo sent in a paper. "On the physiological action of ozone" - 1st December 1873. This also was, they noted, a hitherto unexplored area for investigation. After detailing a method for producing ozone they recounted how they watched "the action of ozone on the living animal imprisoned in an atmosphere containing a large proportion of the gas and the action it exerted on the individual living tissues of the body." In these experiments they used frogs, birds, mice, rabbits - and ourselves!" Of the last instance they wrote, "On breathing an atmosphere of ozonised oxygen the chief effects observed were a suffocating feeling in the chest, a tendency to breathe slowly, an irritation of the back of the throat and of the glottis and a tingling sensation, referred to the skin of the face and conjunctivae. The pulse became feebler. After breathing it as long as it was judicious to do so, for five or eight minutes, the suffocating feeling became stronger and we were obliged to desist. The experiment was followed by violent, irritating cough and sneezing and for five or six hours thereafter by a sensation of rawness in the throat and air passages". They went on to detail the action of ozone on the circulation, the reflex action of the spinal cord, muscular contractability, the blood, the ciliary motion. Among the conclusions they reached were these: the inhalation of an atmosphere highly charged with ozone exercises a destructive action on the living animal tissues if brought into immediate contact with them. On 2nd March 1874 along with Professor Guthrie Tait, James Dewar read a paper to the Royal Society of Edinburgh which is significant in that it indicates the shape of things to come so far as his fruitful interest in vacua goes. It was entitled "On a new method of obtaining very perfect vacua". After outlining the methods devised by earlier explorers in that field, such as Davy, Andrews and Gassiot they go on, "the method we have devised to absorb traces of gases is based on the remarkable power of absorption of cocoa nut charcoal for gaseous bodies generally. . . . We need hardly say that this easy method of obtaining vacua will be of importance in spectroscopic observations and we intend shortly to communicate observations in this direction". In a paper on cystine he concluded with this plea, "The author's stock of cystine being now exhausted he will feel extremely indebted to anyone who would spare him a small quantity for experimental purposes". An active member of the Society, of which he had been elected a councillor on 24th November 1873, James Dewar contributed more than twenty articles to their proceedings dealing with experiments which he had carried out alone or with colleagues during the short period of his membership; a remarkable output in quantity as it was also in originality for one so young and a harbinger of the amazing number of scientific papers which were to come from his pen in future years. By 1873 such was his established, and growing, reputation that he was invited to deliver a lecture at The Royal Institution in London for which he chose as his subject, "The temperature of the sun and the work of sunlight."
In 1870, his brother Alexander, now a doctor in Melrose (note 11), sent him a sample of water for analysis taken from a well which had been dug recently and "whose water is perfectly different from all those in its vicinity". In his reply James wrote, "should it maintain its present character I have no doubt that, judging from its own qualities as well as from its favourable climatic situation along with the general interest attached to the locality this chalybeate is certain to recommend itself to the medical profession."
The Directors of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (note 12), which had for many years been ably served by Dr Thomas Anderson as its chemist, resolved at their meeting on 8th January 1873 to engage an assistant chemist, who in addition to sharing Dr Anderson's analytical work; would "give lectures in different districts and superintend the carrying out of field experiments at a salary of £100 to £150 per annum". On 5th March they approved "the appointment of Mr James Dewar, F.R.S.E., who at present holds the professorship of chemistry at Edinburgh Veterinary College and is assistant to the professor of chemistry in the University". One advantage to the Society's East of Scotland members was that James Dewar was based in Edinburgh and so was more readily accessible to them than was Dr Anderson who was domiciled in Glasgow. Among the duties of the assistant chemist was to reply to letters craving advice and to analyse samples of manure sent to him by individual... NEXT PAGE
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