Manchester Memoirs^ Vol. xliv. ( 1 900), No. 1 0. 3 



silk and water Walker and Appleyard' found that, on the 



ordinary theory, the picric acid would be 27 times more 



dissociated in silk solution than in water. Such ions 



would be very strange bodies. Similar results have been 



obtained by Georgevics. In any case it is impossible for 



the ions to be more numerous than the atoms. Yet 



Ramsa\' found that certain elements in mercury solution 



{eg.., sodium, potassium, barium, calcium) gave numbers 



indicating the presence of more ions than atoms. It is 



perhaps not surprising that although sodium-amalgam 



contains ions, it is not an electrolyte.'* On the other hand 



the factor of ionisation is frequently less than would be 



expected {e.g., rS instead of 2 for common salt in water). 



The most valuable evidence in favour of the theory is 



the approximate coincidence between the ionisation 



figures drawn from osmotic and conductivity methods 



respectively. Since the investigations of pyridine, benzo- 



nitrite, nitro-benzene and acetone solutions by Prof 



Kahlenberg, A. T. Lincoln, and others, it has been shewn 



that none of the predicted regularities hold. Electrolytic 



solutions being obtained with normal osmotic pressures, 



in others the ionisation increasing with the concentration. 



In others no limiting values being obtainable. Now if the 



ions move about independently this should be shewn 



by the order of the equation for reactions in which they 



take part. The catalysis of esters is represented by the 



equation 



EtO AC + H + H.p = EtO H + AcO H + H. 



The form of the equation for the reaction constant, and 



its dependence on the figure called number of ions, is well 



known. But the equation requires that the H ions and 



water should always simultaneously hit the ester ; unless 



^ Walker and Appleyard (1S96), p. 1339. Jour. Chan. Soc. 



^ Ramsay (1889), p. 921. Joiir. Che///. Soc. 



^ Obach, Fogg. Aim. Stipp. Vol. vii. (1876), p. 280. 



