154 EEVISIONS OF THE THEORY OP ELECTEOLYSIB. 



bound together into a whole molecule and, therefore, very near together ; then 

 the attraction binding them together is greater than the attraction between 

 the positive part-molecule of one complete molecule and the negative of another. 

 If now an electric force acts within this mass, and seeks to urge the positively 

 electrified part-molecules in one direction and the negatively electrified ones 

 in the other, then the question arises what influence this electric force must 

 exert on the behavior of the molecules. 



Inasmuch as the molecules are assumed to be capable of rotation, the first 

 effect would plainly be to turn all of them in the same manner, so that the two 

 oppositely electrified portions of each complete molecule would be turned in 

 the direction in which they are urged by the acting force. Fui-ther, the force 

 would seek to separate the part-molecules united in a whole or complete one 

 and to move them in opposite directions; and if this motion ensues, then the 

 l)0sitive part-molecule of one whole one would meet the negative of the 

 following and would combine with it. But now, in order that the once united 

 part-molecules may be separated, the attraction which they exercise on each 

 other must be overcome. Therefore a force of definite strength is necessary, 

 and one is thus led to the conclusion that so long as the force acting on the 

 conductor does not have this strength no decomposition whatever can take 

 place, and that, on the contrary, if the force is increased to the requisite strength 

 very many molecules must be decomposed at the same time, since they are all 

 under the influence of the same force and have precisely the same I'elation to 

 one another. 



With respect to the electric current, the conclusion can be expressed as follows 

 if it is assumed that the conductor conducts only through electrolysis : So long 

 as the force acting on the conductor is below a certain limit it will produce 

 no current whatever, but if it has reached this limit, then suddenly a very 

 strong current will flow. But this conclusion is flatly contradicted by expe- 

 rience. Even the smallest force causes a current, conducted by alternate decom- 

 positions and reunions, and the intensity of this current increases in accordance 

 with Ohm's law in proportion to the electromotive force. 



It follows from these considerations that the above supposition to the effect 

 that the part-molecules of an electrolyte are bound together in the fixed relation 

 of whole molecules and that these have a definite and regular arrangement 

 must be untrue. 



H; Hi * * * H: * 



I believe therefore that the following hypothesis by which this contradiction 

 is removed, and which, as it seems to me, is in harmony with other known 

 facts, deserves some consideration. 



In my treatise " On the mode of motion, which we call heat," I have expressed 

 the view that in liquids the molecules have no definite positions of equilibrium, 

 about which they only oscillate, but that their motions are so lively that they 

 thereby constantly come into entirely changed and new relations to one another 

 and move among one another in an irregular way. 



Let us now imagine in an electrolytic liquid a single part-molecule present, 

 for example, an electro-positive one, the electrical condition of which we shall 

 assume is exactly the same as at the moment when it was separated from a 

 complete molecule. I believe now that while this part-molecule moves about 

 among the whole molecules, under the many relations which it can assume, 

 sometimes those will occur in which it will attract the negative part-molecule 

 of an luidissociated molecule with greater force than that with which the two 

 parts belonging to an undissociated molecule, whose relation to each other is 



