MOLECULAR WEIGHT IN SOLUTIONS 27 



undecomposed fundamental material ; if the structure can 

 be still further simplified, then a further decomposition is 

 attainable. This is exactly the point of view adopted by 

 Victor Meyer in his latest researches. In his Liibeck 

 address on 'Problems of Atomistics ' (1896) he referred to 

 this aim. After that, and until the end of his life, he 

 occupied himself with experiments in this direction l , and 

 had in view molecular weight determinations up to 2,000. 

 The glass vessels had long been replaced by others of 

 porcelain, and this material by platinum or the still more 

 infusible alloy with 25 per cent, iridium. Finally vessels 

 of magnesia were prepared, which, in a lime oven, stood the 

 temperature of 2,000 obtained by burning graphite in 

 oxygen. But no further decomposition than that into 

 monatomic elements was reached in the case of any 

 element. 



Polymerism. The difference in molecular weight associ- 

 ated in the elements with differences of properties occurs 

 also, it is well known, in compounds of the same composi- 

 tions, especially in organic chemistry, and is then called 

 polymerism. Whole series of similarly composed bodies, 

 such as 



are known, in which n varies from 2 to 30, accompanied by 

 a corresponding change in vapour density and chemical 

 behaviour, as e. g. in combination with bromines, the bodies 



(CH 2 ) n Br z , 

 of different composition, arise. 



2. MOLECULAR WEIGHT DETERMINATION IN DILUTE 

 SOLUTIONS. 



Since the possibility of molecular weight determinations 

 of gases and vapours was shown by Avogadro, the modern 

 development of the theory of solutions rendered the same 



1 Berl. Ber. 30. 1926. 



