ON THE PHYSICAL VIKW OF NATriJE. 



17' 



publication «>!' the second vohnue of his ' Lehrbuch der 

 allgenieinen Chemie ' a great impetus was given to phys- 

 ical cheniistiy. Ihe large addition to our knowledge in 

 this branch, and the consolidation and criticism of re- 

 seanh wliich it brought about, and to which the second 

 edition, now appearing, gives ample testimony, mark this 

 publication as an epoch in modern scientific thouglit. To 

 tliis development is attached the growth oi the special 

 view of natural phenomena which Ostwald and some 

 other Continental thinkers embrace, and which they are 

 inclined to place in opposition to tlie older views as a 

 more comprehensive one. The older views they some- 

 what contemptuously term the materialistic views of 

 nature — the views, in fact, which 1 have presented 

 under the headings astronomical, atomic, and mechanical. 

 As this most recent outcome of what I termed the 

 physical view of nature refers to fuiulamental concep- 

 tions and has furnished much matter for discussion 



the field of contest, either by falling 

 down as insoluble or escaijing as 

 gas, can that complete decomposi- 

 tion take place which Beigmaiin 

 held to be the normal result " 

 ('Die Energie und ihre Waud- 

 lungen,' Leipzig, 1888, p. 20). That 

 complete reactions were for a long 

 time studied with predilection was 

 most natural, esj)ecially as they are 

 the most useful for practical |)ur- 

 j^oses ; but the study of moving 

 cliemical eciuilibrium, depending on 

 what is now termed mass action and 

 involving the question of the velocity 

 of reactions, has in recent times 

 again asserted itself. Ostwald 

 dates the revival of this long- 

 neglected branch of research from 

 the year 1867, when "two Nor- 

 wegian chemists, Guldberg and 



VOL. n. 



Waiige, put the ideas of Berthollet 

 into precise mathematical form and 

 subjected the resulting equations to 

 the test of observation and verifica- 

 tion " (ibid., p. 21). Ostwald then 

 shows further how Bergmaun's 

 theory was simultaneously reviveil 

 in M. Berthelot's famous third law- 

 derived from thermo • chemistry. 

 This in turn had to yield to 

 the correcter views which date 

 from Gibbs's studies "on the 

 equilibria of heterogeneous sub- 

 stances" (see ' Tliermo<lynami.tche 

 Studien,' p. 66, 1875 ; also Ostwald, 

 ' Allg. Chemie,' vol. ii. part 2, p. 

 163, on the reconciliation of Berg- 

 maun's and BerthoUet'a views ; ami 

 further, Berthelot in ' Conipte* 

 Rendus,' 1894, 118). 



.M 



