254 THE REALITIES OF MODERN SCIENCE 



the water can be made of impurities the more nearly 

 is it non-conducting, and the less it is decomposed. 



Whether or not the liberated product is the result 

 of the primary or the secondary reaction there is in 

 the product of electrolysis one univalent atom for each 

 electron transferred through the solution, or in gen- 

 eral a number of atoms equal to the quotient of the 

 number of electrons which have been transferred 

 divided by the valence of the product. The masses 

 of the products produced by the transfer through dif- 

 ferent electrolytic solutions of equal numbers of elec- 

 trons should therefore be proportional to the so-called 

 "electrochemical equivalents" of the individual prod- 

 ucts, i.e. to their molecular weights per unit of valence. 



Now these conclusions, although not expressed in 

 terms of electrons, were obtained experimentally by 

 Faraday in 1834 and are known as his first and second 

 laws of electrolysis. To-day, it is partly a convenience 

 to speak of them by this name and partly a matter 

 of justly honoring the name of one of the most fruit- 

 ful investigators in the early development of electricity. 

 The conclusions are, however, inevitable as soon as 

 we accept as facts the hypotheses of atoms and elec- 

 trons. 



The disadvantage, in this instance and in other 

 similar cases, which is attached to the retention of the 

 names of the laws, is that it results usually in their 

 acceptance by the beginner in science as empirical 

 laws rather than as the logical consequence of the 

 structure of matter. In treating electrolysis we have 

 in this chapter deliberately inverted the historical 

 order so as to emphasize the essential unity of ap- 



