197 
This solution should, however, be denied all signification, because 
as yet free positive ions have not been met with, and everything 
points to the existence of only one kind of electrons, viz. the 
negative ones. 
Hence in spite of a desperate attempt, the difficulty remained un- 
diminished of force. 
The Chlorine-Electrode. 
When considering the just-discussed difficulty, I have come to the 
conclusion that we must necessarily assume that the chlorine atom 
possesses the power to split off electrons and to absorb them, and 
that these two processes take place side by side, which we can 
represent by the following equations: ') 
XC, 2X Cl ae 2X0. ce ie SF ee 
and 
FCI, | + 2YO,22YCl', Ba Vet Sete ( 
in which X and Y indicate the fractions of the original number 
Cl, mol. which have undergone a positive resp. negative ionisation. 
As the electrons, which are absorbed according to (2) proceed 
from the electron-ionisation (1) it is clear that 
DS 
In the limiting case Y = X the chlorine would contain an equal 
number of positive and negative ions, and no electrons at all. As 
we have to do here with a non-metal, X and Y will be exceedingly 
small. 
It is now the question how the positive charge of the chlorine 
electrode is to be explained. It is clear that for this we should 
have to assume that for the non-metal, chlorine, it is the negative 
ions that go practically exclusively into solution, and possess, there- 
fore, a much greater solubility than the positive ones. 
Metals and Non-Metals. 
These considerations about the non-metal, chlorine, which necessa- 
rily result from the consistent application of the principles of the 
theory of allotropy to the electromotive equilibria, lead us to the 
point of view from which we can survey the metals and the non- 
metals in a very satisfactory way. 
') For the sake of simplicity we assume here that the positive ions are also 
univalent, 
En 
