On the Existence of Active Oxygen Thesis Presented for the Attainment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Johns Hopkins University

"On the Existence of Active Oxygen" by Edward Harrison Keiser, is a scientific paper from the late 1800s that investigates the special form of oxygen called active oxygen, thought to work better than regular oxygen in chemical reactions. It dives deep into what scientists before thought about active oxygen, like ideas from Schönbein and others, and checks if their experiments really showed active oxygen was there. The author carefully looks at experiments to find this active oxygen and decides the evidence isn't solid enough, thinking that maybe other chemicals like hydrogen dioxide are responsible for the reactions people thought were from active oxygen. The paper pushes scientists to rethink what they know about oxygen and test their ideas more thoroughly, with the intent to advance knowledge of how elements act during experimentation.