ELECTROLYTIC DISSOCIATION 247 



The adherents do not, however, necessarily apportion 

 themselves to the individual leaders exactly in propor- 

 tion to their relative strengths. In one of these new 

 groups the adherents are in excess of the leader's 

 capacity while in the other they are too few. The 

 dissociated groups may later be thrown together and 

 recombine. Similarly the dissociation of a molecule 

 in a solution is the result of the formation of new 

 systems of potential energy between the molecules of 

 the solvent and the component ions of the solute 

 molecules. 



(2) The battery or other source of potential differ- 

 ence draws electrons from one platinum electrode, the 

 anode, and forces electrons to the other, the cathode. 

 The cation, or positive ion, on reaching the cathode 

 receives from it an electron, thus becoming a normal 

 molecular particle. The neutralization of its de- 

 ficiency in electrons corresponds exactly to the neu- 

 tralization of the positive charge of a pith ball when it 

 is attracted to and touches a negatively charged ebon- 

 ite rod. Similarly, the anion gives up an electron to 

 the anode. The number of electrons in the solution is 

 then unaltered on the average, and similarly as to the 

 number in the part of the conducting circuit formed by 

 the battery and its connecting wires. 



(3) The electrolytic ions are not the particles into 

 which the substance of the solute would decompose as 

 a gas. For example, NH 4 C1 decomposes as a gas into 

 ammonia (NH 3 ) and hydrochloric acid (HC1). In 

 solution the dissociation is into an ion formed by the 

 atoms NH 4 , which is deficient by one electron, and an 

 ion formed by a chlorine atom and one extra electron* 



