KAIILENBERG — THEORY OF ELECTROLYTIC DISSOCIATION. 337 



The difficulties which the theory of electrolytic dissociation 

 encounters in explaining the phenomena in aqueous solutions 

 are really insurmountable. We have seen that there are solu- 

 tions which are excellent electrical conductors, and yet the molec- 

 ular weight determinations show a normal molecular weight 

 of the dissolved substance. It is clear that while in some cases 

 the molecular weight increases with the concentration, thus ac- 

 cording at least qualitatively with the theory, in other cases the 

 molecular weight decreases with the increase of the concentra- 

 tion, finally becoming less than what it ought to be even on the 

 assumption that electrolytic dissociation is complete. Again, in 

 other cases the molecular weight at first increases with the 

 concentration and then it diminishes as the concentration in- 

 creases. And these phenomena are observed in solutions the 

 conductivity of which steadily increases with the increase of 

 the dilution. I have not given any examples of aqueous solu- 

 tions in which the molecular conductivity does not increase 



^In this series, which was really only a preliminary one, the thermometer grad- 

 uated to tenths was used. 



