’ 
ee 
4 
ae 
eis: i 
: 
T. S. Hunt on Solution and the Chemical Process. 101 
It mnst not be forgotten that the liquid state of these aqueous 
combinations is often an accident of temperature; alum and the 
rhombic phosphate of soda are liquids at 212° F., and bi-hydrated 
sulphuric acid is a crystalline solid below 46° F. The ease with - 
which many of these compounds are destroyed by evaporation, 
and even by changes of temperature, is not to be urged as an 
objection to the chemical nature of the union. We need only 
compare the corresponding silver salts with the chlorid and iodid 
of gold, or the hydrochlorates of morphia and ammonia with 
those of caffeine and piperine, which lose their acid by a gentle 
heat, to learn how variable is the stability of admitted chemical 
compounds. Chemical affinity may be very feeble in degree. 
According to Gay-Lussac one part of oil of vitriol will absorb 
from air saturated with moisture, fifteen parts of water, or more 
than eighty equivalents; terchlorid of arsenic requires eighteen 
equivalents of water to dissolve it, and the saturated solution 
unites with as much more water, evolving heat and forming a 
stable solution.* According to the experiments of Mr. Griffin in 
the paper cited above, the condensation which takes place in the 
solution of the acid is still perceptible with 6000 equivalents of 
water to one of SOs. ‘There appears however to be with many 
ale. 
ture, p. 453. See also p. 67, where Stallo insists 
same view. To Hegel bela es the merit of having first among modern 
osophers obtained a just conception of the nature of the chemical process, al- 
though in its application on misled by the received terminology of the science, 
f 
