WATER 123 



Physiologically, as researches of the last 

 twenty years clearly prove, the action of ions 

 is of fundamental significance. The brilliant 

 investigations of J. Loeb, and the long series 

 of studies by various other physiologists of 

 the influence of electrolytes upon colloids 

 form perhaps the most telling evidence for 

 this belief. 1 At all events there is no ques- 

 tion that the simple equilibria between acids 

 and bases and salts are of extreme importance 

 in physiological processes. They lie at the 

 very basis of the structure of all protoplasm, 



ing dilution the conductance approaches a maximum value, 

 nor, finally, the dilution law, was found to hold. Molecular 

 weight determinations carried out at the same time by the 

 boiling-point method gave normal values for non-electrolytes, 

 and abnormally large values for electrolytes, whereas abnor- 

 mally small values would be expected. This indicates that 

 association has taken place, to a considerable extent, which 

 in all probability takes place not only between molecules of 

 dissolved substance, but also between these molecules and 

 those of the solvent. Considering these circumstances, it 

 is very fortunate for the advance of the sciences of chemistry 

 and electro-chemistry that such complications arc generally, 

 although not always, absent in the case of aqueous solutions. 

 It is due to this fact that it has been possible to deduce simple 

 laws from a study of such solutions." — Le Blanc, "A Text- 

 book of Electro-Chemistry." New York, 1907, pp. H2-1 \:\. 

 1 Full discussion of such subjects will be found in the 

 "Dynamics of Living Matter," by Loeb, and in his contribu- 

 tion to Oppenheimer's "Handbuch der Biochemie," as well 

 as in Hober's " Physikalische Chemie der Zelle und der 

 Gewebe." 



