XVIII. 



THOUGHTS ON SOLUTION AND THE 

 CHEMICAL PROCESS. 



(1854.) 



This paper appeared in the American Journal of Science for January, 1854, and also 

 in the Chemical Gazette for 1S55, page 90. 



~BY solution, as distinguished from fusion or volatilization, 

 we understand in chemistry the production of a homogeneous 

 liquid by the combination of two or more bodies, one of which 

 must itself be in a liquid statej while the others may be liquid, 

 solid, or gaseous. The solvent action of acids and alkalies 

 upon bodies insoluble in water is by all admitted to be chemi- 

 cal in its nature ; but, according to Leopold Gmelin, " mixtures 

 of liquids, and solutions of solids in liquids (as of acids, alka- 

 lies, salts, oils, etc., in water and alcohol), are, by Berzelius, 

 Mitscherlich, Dumas, and others of the most distinguished 

 modern chemists, regarded as not chemical unless they take place 

 in definite proportions." " Mitscherlich attributes such unions 

 to adhesion, Dumas to a solvent power intermediate between 

 cohesion and (chemical) affinity, and Berzelius refers them to a 

 modification of affinity, while proper chemical combinations ac- 

 cording to him result, not from affinity, but from electrical at- 

 traction." (Gmelin's Handbook, English ed., Vol. I. p. 34.) 



The learned author of the Handbook objects to these views 

 that " they restrict the idea of a chemical compound within 

 too narrow limits," and he elsewhere implies that the force 

 which produces solution is a weak degree of chemical affinity. 

 (Ibid., Vol. I. p. 70.) The judicious Turner also speaks of ordi- 



