152 HYDRATES IN AQUEOUS SOLUTION. 



more complex aggregates than would be expressed by the simple formula, 

 Ca(N0 3 ) 2 . 



The conclusion to which we are led by the results in general in ethyl 

 alcohol, is the same as that to which we have already referred in the case of 

 solutions in methyl alcohol. The large value of the molecular rise in the 

 more concentrated solutions would indicate that a part of the alcohol was 

 not playing the role of solvent, but was combined with the dissolved sub- 

 stance. This would also account for the increase in the molecular rise of 

 the boiling-point with increase in the concentration of the solution, not- 

 withstanding the fact that the dissociation is decreasing as the solutions 

 become more concentrated. As the amount of dissolved substance present 

 increases, the total amount of the solvent combined with it increases, and 

 less and less alcohol is acting as solvent as the concentration becomes greater 

 and greater. This is in keeping with the law of mass action. The amount 

 of the solvent combined with one molecule of the dissolved substance is 

 probably greater, the more dilute the solution, at least up to a certain point. 

 We have not yet worked out even the approximate composition of the alco- 

 holates formed, as Jones and Getman* and Jones and Bassettf have done 

 in the case of aqueous solutions. This is due, in part, to the fact that we 

 have not yet had time to determine accurately the dissociation of the various 

 salts at the different dilutions in the alcohols. 



When such data shall have been secured, there ought to be no serious 

 difficulty in calculating the approximate composition of the alcoholates 

 formed by the various salts in solution in these solvents. Work is now 

 in progress on this and similar problems. 



* Amer. Chem. Journ., 3 1 , 303 (1904) ; 32, 308 (1904). Ztschr. phys. Chem., 49, 385 (1904). 

 f Amer. Chem. Journ., 33, 334 (1905). 



