450 1 SOLUTION AND THE CHEMICAL PROCESS. [XVIIL 



saturated solution unites with as much more water, evolving 

 heat and forming a stable solution.* According to the ex- 

 periments of Mr. Griffin in the paper cited above^ the conden- 

 sation which takes place in the solution of the acid is still 

 perceptible with 6,000 equivalents of water to one of S0 f . 

 There appears, however, to be with many bodies a limit be- 

 yond which the affinity for water is satisfied, and the liquids 

 being then mechanically mixed, gradually separate by reason 

 of their difference in density, as is observed in dilute alcohol, 

 and probably in some saline solutions t and in metallic alloys. 



Solution is a result of that tendency in nature which con- 

 stantly leads to unity, condensation, identification. I have 

 elsewhere, with Kant, defined chemical union to be iiiter- 

 penetration, but the conception is mechanical, and therefore 

 fails to give an adequate idea. The definition of Hegel, that 

 the chemical process is an identification of the different and a 

 differentiation of the identical^ is, however, completely ade- 

 quate. Chemical union involves an identification, not only of 

 the volumes (interpenetration mechanically considered), but 

 of the specific characters of the combining bodies, which are 

 lost in those of the new species. Such is equally the case in 

 aqueous solution, and we may say that all chemical union is 

 nothing else than solution ; the uniting species are, as it were, 

 dissolved in each other, for solution is mutuaL 



Solution being, then, identification, the discussion as to 

 whether metallic chlorides are changed into hydrochl 

 when dissolved in water, is meaningless. Such a solution is a 



* Penny and Wallace, L., E. and D. Phil. Mag., November, 1852, page 363. 



t See Gmelin's Handbook, Eng. ed., Vol. 1. p. 111. Gmelin throws a 

 doubt upon these experiments ; but the satisfactory results obtained on a 

 large scale, in applying this principle to the rectification of spirit of wine by 

 a recently patented process, were communicated to the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, at Washington in May, 1854, by Dr. L. D. 

 Gale. [This is questionable.] 



J SUllo's Philosophy of Nature, page 453 ; see also page 67, where Stallo 

 insists upon the same view. To Hegel belongs the merit of having first 

 among modern philosophers obtained a just conception of the nature of the 

 chemical process, although in its application he was misled by the received 

 terminology of the science. 



