[106] THE RATES OF TRANSFERENCE AND 



THE CONDUCTING POWER OF CERTAIN 



SILVER SALTS 1 



1. INTRODUCTION 



WHENEVER a current of electricity is passed through a 

 conductor of the second class, under such conditions that the 

 composition of the solution is not changed, as when a current 

 passes between electrodes of the same metal in a solution of 

 a salt of that metal, curious changes of concentration appear. 

 This was noticed by many scientists, but it was reserved for 

 Hittorf to investigate these changes quantitatively and to 

 advance a plausible and exhaustive hypothesis of their causes. 

 His work constitutes one of the classics in physics; but as it 

 is not, perhaps, so generally known to chemists, a short ex- 

 planation of his hypothesis may be a not inappropriate in- 

 troduction to our paper. Taking the example already cited, 

 it is, of course, a familiar principle, that in a given interval 

 the same amount of metal is dissolved from the positive elec- 

 trode as is deposited upon the negative electrode. If we were 

 to assume that the ions of the electrolyte were incapable of 

 moving independently of each other, the changes in concen- 

 tration at the two electrodes could only be counterbalanced 

 by the slow process of diffusion, and we should find a deficit 

 in the liquid around the negative electrode corresponding 

 to the amount of metal deposited upon the latter, while all 

 the metal yielded up by the positive electrode would be found 



1 In collaboration with Walther Nernst. Reprinted from American Chemical 

 Journal, 11, 106 (1889). This paper is an abbreviated translation of the fore- 

 going monograph, made by Dr. Loeb. [EDITOR.] , 



