ON ELECTROLYSIS IN ITS PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL BEARINGS. 339 



grant of 15Z. is still unbroken, and if the Committee should be disposed 

 to continue it, different arrangements next year would probably lead to a 

 more favourable result. 



Third Re-port of the Gonimittee, consisting of Professors Armstrong, 

 Lodge, Sir William Thomson, Lord Rayleigh, Fitzgerald, 

 J. J. Thomson, Schuster, Poynting, Crum Brown, Ramsay, 

 Frankland, Tilden, Hartley, S. P. Thompson, McLeod, Roberts- 

 Austen, Rucker,Reinold, Carey Foster, awfZ H. B. Dixon, Captain 

 Abney, Drs. Gladstone, Hopkinson, and Fleming, and Messrs. 

 Crookes, Shelford Bidwell, W. N. Shaw, J. Larmor, J. T. 

 BottOiMLEy, R. T. Glazebrook, J. Brown, E. J. Love, and 

 John M. Thomson, appointed for the purpose of considering 

 the subject of Electrolysis in its Physical and Chemical Bearings. 



During the past year work has been done by the Committee as 

 follows : — 



Prof. Fitzgerald and Mr. Trouton have continued their investigation 

 into the accuracy of Ohm's law in electrolytes, with the result that the 

 coefficient h in e=rc (l — hc^) is now known to be less than SxlO'^'in 

 sulphate of copper solution. Their communication is annexed in con- 

 tinuation of their previous contributions on the same subject as given in 

 the 188G Report, p. 312, and in the 1887 Report, p. 345. _ 



Lord Rayleigh has experimentally examined the question whether the 

 velocity of light thi-ough an electrolyte is affected by the passage of an 

 electric current in the same direction, and his account of the experiment 

 and of its result is annexed. 



Dr. Gladstone and Mr. Hibbert have experimented on the mode of 

 conduction of alloys and solid sulphides, and their paper is appended to 

 this report. 



Dr. Armstrong has been preparing some pure selenium, with the view 

 of examining its conductivity ; and Mr. Crompton, in his laboratory, is 

 engaged in determining the resistance of sulphuric acid of various 

 strengths at different temperatures, with the object of applying to the 

 results Mendelejeff's theory of solution, as explained and partially reported 

 in the ' Transactions of the Chemical Society ' for January 1888. 



Mr. Shaw is continuing the drawing up of his report on recent progress 

 in the whole subject of electrolysis. 



Prof. Willard Gibbs has sent a letter to the Secretary, replying to 

 some observations made in last year's report concerning a communication 

 with which he had previously favoured the Committee : see Report, 1886, 

 p. 388 ; and 1887, p. 340. This letter is printed below. 



Prof. Clausius has sent a letter to the Secretary with respect to the 

 nomenclature often adopted in England for the dissociation hypothesis of 

 electrolytic conduction, which, on the Continent, is known hy his name 

 alone. The Committee record the deep regret with which they have quite 

 recently heard of his death. 



The paper by Prof, von Helmholtz, ' Further Researches respect, 

 ing the Electrolysis of Water,' as translated and communicated to the 



z 2 



