THE THIRST OF SALTED WATER 641 



und entgegen den Auffassungen der Ionentheorie [my italics]. 

 Solange die letztere die Frage nach der chemischen Rolle des 

 Losungmittels stillschweigend umgeht, miissen ihre Anspruche 

 chemische Thatsachen zu erklaren als ungerechtfertigt an- 

 gesehen werden. Die Anzahl der offenbar zusammenhangenden 

 Thatsachen aber, die die Ionentheorie mit Hiilfe der von 

 Faraday als glanzendes Mittel zur Veranschaulichung der 

 Vorgange bei der Elektrolyse geschaffenen Vorstellung der 

 Ionen zusammenzufassen sucht, wird, wie es scheint, in der 

 wechselnden Valenz bestimmter Atome des Losungsmittels ihre 

 Erklarung finden. Hierin liegt auch die grosse Bedeutung der 

 Lehre von der Tetravalenz des Sauerstoffs. Sie ist berufen, 

 die structurtheoretische Unterlage fur die von Mendelejeff in- 

 augurate Hydrattheorie der wasserigen Losungen und fur das 

 damit zusammenhangende Problem der Structur des flussigen 

 Wassers zu liefern. 



All this of course without reference to the fact that they are 

 recapitulating ancient history. But what matters it who spreads 

 the complaint ? The virus is abroad at last. 



At all events the opsonic index of workers is now risen 

 sufficiently high, it seems, to warrant the introduction of a strong 

 dose of antitoxin. Thus another writer, who dates from 

 Charlottenburg — that name of strange import in London — 

 I. Traube, who also apparently is fallen a victim to IVassersucht, 

 with strange effrontery actually concludes an essay {Berichte der 

 deutschen chemischen GesellscJmft, 1909, p. 94) with the impious 

 words, " Die Theorie von Arrhenius scheint mir auf einen 

 fundamentalen Irrthume zu beruhen." When, in very early days, 

 I ventured to say that the speculation was an offence against 

 chemical common-sense, I was looked at askance as an infidel. 

 For some time past, Prof. Harry C. Jones, of Baltimore, who has 

 long been a notable trumpeter of ionic formularies in the United 

 States, has been gradually executing strategic movements which 

 give clear indication of a desire to beat a retreat from an im- 

 possible position. He is even beginning to claim to have been 

 the inventor of the weapons in the hands of the opposition 

 party — always an interesting sign of recantation. The beautiful 

 simplicity of this writer's belief is well shown in the following 

 passage from the preface to his Elements of Organic Chemistry 

 (1903): 



Take the theory of electrolytic dissociation, which to-day is 

 as well established as many of our laws of nature [this is not 



