The Tendencies of Chemistry 



Thus the intervention of physics has enabled 

 us to bring things to a focus: the principle of 

 maximum work would be rigorously true only 

 at the absolute zero of temperature, that is to 

 say at 273 below zero centigrade. Except in 

 this extreme case the direction of reactions is 

 not determined by the total energy, such as is 

 given by thermo-chemical tables, but by a part 

 of this energy, called by Helmholtz the free 

 energy, whose expression is known and which 

 can be determined. 



The path opened by Thomsen and Berthelot, 

 following Bergmann, has now been marked out 

 along its entire length. We know where it can 

 lead and we know the efforts required from those 

 who traverse it. But, at the same time, we see 

 that the short cut offered by the principle of 

 maximum work was only a false trail; the right 

 road is much longer and harder, but it leads to 

 scientific truth. 



There is another way of studying chemical 

 reactions; instead of viewing the battle from 

 afar and judging its course by the smoke and 

 the sound of the cannon, we may penetrate 



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