TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



cotian Institute of 



SESSION OF 1896-9T. 



I. ON THE RELATION OF THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF 

 AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS TO THEIR STATE OF IONIZATION. 

 BY PROFESSOR J. G. MACGREGOR, Dalhousie College, 

 Halifax, N. S. 



(Communicated 14th December, 1896.) 



It has often been pointed out that, according to the dissocia- 

 tion or ionization conception of the constitution of a solution of 

 an electrolyte, the difference between the physical properties of 

 one in which ionization is complete and those of the solvent 

 must be compounded additively of the differences produced by 

 the two ions. It would seem to be equally obvious that, in the 

 case of solutions in which the ionization is not complete, the 

 differences referred to must be similarly compounded of those 

 produced by the undissociated molecules and by the free ions ; 

 and if so, it should be possible to express the numerical values 

 of the various properties in terms of the state of ionization. 

 Such an expression would take its simplest form in the case of 

 solutions so dilute that the molecules, dissociated or undisso- 

 ciated, might be regarded as sufficiently far apart to render 

 mutual action between them impossible, and in these circum- 

 stances the change produced in the properties of the solvent by 

 the undissociated and the dissociated molecules respectively 

 might be expected to be simply proportional to their respective 

 numbers per unit of volume. It is the object of this paper to 



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