ON ELECTROLYSIS. 723 
On Electrolysis. By Professor OLIVER J. LopGr, D.Sc. 
[A communication ordered by the General Committee to be printed zm catenso 
among the Reports. ] 
WHEN in response to an urgent request by the President of Section B 
I agreed to open the present discussion, it was only after a good deal of 
hesitation that I consented. For though convinced of the immense import- 
ance of amore thorough study of the facts and phenomena connected 
with the passage of electricity through decomposable bodies, and of its 
vital interest to all scientific chemists, yet it was not a subject that I had 
made specially my own; having been in fact to a great extent deterred by the 
immense area it covered, and by the somewhat repulsive character attach- 
ing to any borderland branch of science—in this case not wholly physics nor 
wholly chemistry—a repulsiveness perhaps only subjective, and probably 
to be attributed to a feeling of incapacity for grasping both aspects of 
the subject with equal completeness. This difficulty still remains with 
me, and though I have made a severe attempt to tackle the subject as 
best I could during the past month, I have been quite unable to cover the 
immense field, or to read more than the summaries of its literature ; and 
accordingly I shall attempt no historical or chronological survey, but 
shall endeavour simply to direct attention to certain theoretical points 
which are undoubtedly of interest and importance, and to suggest the 
answers which I myself feel inclined to give to debatable questions which 
bristle round even the most elementary facts; in the hope that, attention 
being thus directed to them, success in finally solving some of them may 
be attained by a more competent hand. 
Naturally I confine myself to the more physical aspect of the subject, 
because, my chemical knowledge being of a meagre and antiquated 
description, it is better worth your while that I should attempt reason- 
ably good physics than that I should perpetrate unreasonably bad 
chemistry. 
Moreover no chemical development will be satisfactory and permanent 
anless erected ona thorough physical basis; and, if I may venture an 
opinion on such a subject, I believe that the work of a few chemical 
philosophers spent in broadening and deepening the foundations of their 
science would soon confer upon the superstructure a less unsightly and 
lopsided appearance than, seen from outside, it at present has. 
The first question which presents itself is— 
I. Waar ts an ELEcrRouyte P 
The question may have either of two distinct meanings— 
(a) Is a substance an electrolyte at all; i.e., when alone ? 
(b) Is it the electrolyte in any particular case ; 7.e., when mixed 
with other substances ? 
First meaning of I. 
As answers to (a) certain chemical statements have been made, such 
as: ‘all electrolytes are compounds of a metal with a non-metal ’ (Miller) ; 
3A2 
