ON THE PHYSICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 177 



publication of the second volume of his ' Lehrbuch der 

 allgemeinen Chemie ' a great impetus was given to phys- 

 ical chemistry. The large addition to our knowledge in 

 this branch, and the consolidation and criticism of re- 

 search which it brought about, and to which the second 

 edition, now appearing, gives ample testimony, mark this 

 publication as an epoch in modern scientific thought. To 

 this development is attached the growth of the special 

 view of natural phenomena which Ostwald and some 

 other Continental thinkers embrace, and which they are 

 inclined to place in opposition to the older views as a 

 more comprehensive one. The older views they some- 

 what contemptuously term the materialistic views of 

 nature the views, in fact, which I have presented 

 under the headings astronomical, atomic, and mechanical. 

 As this most recent outcome of what I termed the 

 physical view of nature refers to fundamental concep- 

 tions and has furnished much matter for discussion 



the field of contest, either by falling Waage, put the ideas of Berthollet 



down as insoluble or escaping as into precise mathematical form and 



gas, can that complete decomposi- subjected the resulting equations to 



tion take place which Bergmann ! the test of observation and verifica- 



held to be the normal result" ! tion " (ibid., p. 21). Oetwald then 



( ' Die Energie und ihre Wand- shows further how Bergmann's 



lungen,' Leipzig, 1888, p. 20). That theory was simultaneously revived 



comptete reactions were for a long in M. Berthelot's famous third law 



time studied with predilection was derived from thermo - chemistry, 



most natural, especially as they are This in turn had to yield to 



the most useful for practical pur- the corrector views which date 



poses ; but the study of moving from Gibbs's studies " on the 



chemical equilibrium, depending on j equilibria of heterogeneous sub- 



what is now termed mass action stances " (see ' Thermodynamische 



and involving the question of the Studien,' p. 66, 1875 ; also Ost- 



velocity of reactions, has in recent > wald, ' Allg. Chemie,' vol. ii. part 



times again asserted itself. Ost- ' 2, p. 163, on the reconciliation of 



wald dates the revival of this long- ! Bergmann's and Berthollet's views ; 



neglected branch of research from i and further, Berthelot in ' Comptes 



the year 1867, when "two Nor- Rendus,' 1894, 118). 

 wegian chemists, Quldberg and 



VOL. II. M 



