ABSORPTION. 259 



qualities in the same substances. We will here only refer, by 

 way of example, to a group of properties exhibited by soluble 

 bodies which stand in the most intimate relation to one another 

 for each individual body. It cannot surely be denied that the 

 degree of solubility of a substance stands in a definite relation to the 

 coefficient of condensation occurring during solution ; and who, 

 moreover, could venture to question that the diffusibility of a sub- 

 stance must stand in certain relations of dependence to its solu- 

 bility ? and do we not proclaim our belief in the intimate connection 

 between endosmosis and the diffusion of fluid bodies, when we 

 regret that we should hitherto have followed a wrong direction, 

 and studied the more complicated processes of endosmosis before 

 we had attempted, as Graham has now done, to refer the pheno- 

 mena of diffusion to definite laws ? Our knowledge is indeed nut 

 yet so far advanced as to enable us sharply to define these con- 

 ditions and relations of dependence, or the connection existing 

 between these different properties ; but, at all events, this much 

 is clearly shown, that all these properties are not merely con- 

 nected together, but that they are also placed in the most intimate 

 connection or relation with certain fundamental qualities in each 

 individual substance. The undeniable importance which this 

 relation of the integral properties of a substance must exert upon 

 it during its entire passage through the animal body, must serve as 

 our apology for entering somewhat fully into this question. It 

 has generally been customary to understand by the term solution 

 simply an uniform distribution of the molecules of the dissolving 

 substance amongst the molecules of the dissolving menstruum ; 

 and on this account it has been proposed to apply the term 

 dissolution* (Auflosung] to those cases in which the solution 

 (Losung) is evidently accompanied by simultaneous chemically 

 attracting forces. But, in point of fact, such a distribution of 

 the molecules of a solid body amongst those of a fluid never 

 occurs, as far as our knowledge at present extends, unless we at 

 the same time observe, on comparing the sum of the original 

 volumes of the substances to be mixed with the volume of the 

 mixed body, that the entire volume has been diminished by con- 

 densation. The merit of having confirmed this fact appertains to 

 C. Schmidt, who has also determined for many substances the 

 degree of condensation exhibited in their solution in certain 



* [I merely use this word for want of a better. We have no two words 

 which bear precisely the same relation to one another as the two German words. 

 G. E. n.] 



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