4 ART. TO. — K. IKEDA : STUDIES ON THE 



tion at the same time. Had the propounder of the theory of 

 electrolytic dissociation sought for all the various factors which 

 might have some bearing upon the deviations from the simple 

 laws of the dilute solution and attempted to interweave these 

 into his fundamental conceptions, he would certainly have pro- 

 duced a more general theory, but it is very doubtful whether 

 he could have achieved so much for the real progress of the 

 science. The present studies have been prosecuted in the same 

 spirit, directness and simplicity of treatment having been striven 

 for rather than generality and rigour. The deviations from the 

 ideal behaviour are considered to be caused by chemical changes 

 alone. In this way it is hoped that the general behaviour of 

 solutions may be made comprehensible, and more particularly 

 that the quantitative relations of heterogeneous equilibria may 

 be elucidated. Conversely it may also be expected that the state 

 of chemical equilibrium in concentrated solutions will be deduced 

 from the study of heterogeneous equilibria. This application, 

 when it can really be made, will prove to be of considerable 

 importance to various branches of chemistry. 



It may, however, be urged that in the liquid state the in- 

 dividual properties of the components and the influences of their 

 mutual actions, which are also of a specific nature, are pre- 

 dominant, and that the deviations from the ideal behaviour 

 caused by these factors may be much more considerable than is 

 the case with rarefied gases or dilute solutions, so that quite 

 anomalous relations may obtain without any chemical change 

 taking place. This objection is of course irrefutable. But in a 

 great many cases where chemical reactions are avowedly excluded, 

 close approximation to the ideal behaviour has been observed. 

 We have therefore some reason to suppose that the deviations 



