Abstract
Opening of the Discussion by Prof. Tilden FOR want of time, the consideration of various phenomena connected with the subject was necessarily omitted. Thus no reference could be made to the various formulæ relating to expansion or density of solutions, nor to their optical properties, magnetic rotation, nor to the subject of electrolysis. In what follows, a review is presented of the principal phenomena observed in the act of solution of solids (especially metallic salts and other comparatively simple compounds) in liquids, and the chief properties of the resulting solutions, with the object of arriving (if possible) at some conclusion as to the physical explanation of the facts. The question must at once arise whether these phenomena are to be considered as chemical or mechanical, and all the theories which have been put forward to explain the nature of solution are roughly divisible into two classes, according as, on the one hand, they represent the process as a kind of chemical combination, or, on the other, explain the phenomena by reference to the mechanical intermixture of molecules, or by the influence of the rival attractions of cohesion in the solid and liquid, and of adhesion of the solid to the liquid. The former hypothesis seems to have, been universally adopted by the older writers, such as Henry and Turner, and it seems pretty clear that Berthollet also regarded solution as an act of chemical combination. Among modern chemists, Prof. Josiah P. Cooke takes a similar view, but M. Berthelot is the most consistent and powerful supporter of the same hypothesis. In his “Mécanique Chimique,” tome ii. p. 160, will be found a very clear and formal statement of the views upon this subject which, it is interesting to know, are retained by M. Berthelot without modification in any essential particular.
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Solution 1 . Nature 35, 21–22 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/035021a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/035021a0