ON ELECTBOLTSIS. 



357 



couple of individuals holding each other by the hand to waltz rapidly round a 

 room, and suppose a second couple to do the same : if, as the couples passed each 

 other, one of the individuals were to grab at one of the members of the other set, 

 might not the members of the one or the other couple part company ? 



9. Ostwald's remarkable contributions to our knowledge of molecular conduc- 

 tivity appear to me to bear continuous testimony to the existence of such an in- 

 fluence of molecule upon molecule as that I have pictured. I have given numerous 

 illustrations from his work in my Royal Society paper, but I may here call atten- 

 tion to his numbers for hydrocinnamic, cinnamic, and phenylpropiolic acids : — 



The numbers show that the ' activity ' of the acid increases as hydrogen is with- 

 drawn. On the orthodox view the ions are H and the acid minus H; but it is 

 difficult to conceive that the affinity of the negative ion for H should diminish as 

 that ion becomes deprived of hydrogen, and that that acid should be the strongest 

 — i.e., conduct best — because most dissociated, which it is to be imagined would be 

 the least ready to part with hydrogen. 



10. Arrhenius certainly bases his conclusion on the orthodox view of atomic 

 dissociation, but in his calculations makes use of the conductivity values determined 

 by himself or Kohlrausch ; it seems to me, therefore, that his results are in the 

 main independent of any theory of the nature of electrolysis. To use his words, 

 ' L'activite electrolytique se confonde avec I'activite chimique ; ' or, to put it in 

 another way, which much of our chemical experience appears to warrant, the 

 formula by which Ohm's law is expressed 



R 



may also be used as representing the law of chemical change, C being the amount 

 of change and E the intensity of the total chemical effect. An argument based upon 

 electrolytic values may therefore be expected to be in agreement with chemical 

 experience. 



In conclusion, I would add that I urge these pleas on behalf of my hypothesis 

 with the greatest diffidence, feeling that I am unfortunately unable to fully appre- 

 ciate the force of the mathematical and physical arguments. 1 do think, however, 

 that in framing our conceptions we may, perhaps, have been too much guided by 

 statistical principles ; it is quite open to question whether the atoms in molecules 

 are in that state of unrest — are perpetually changing places in the manner in which 

 our fancy has allowed us to pictm-e them to be. We have yet almost everything 

 to learn regarding inter-atomic structure, and everything regarding intra-atomic 

 structure. It is impossible at present to quantify peculiarities and relationships 

 which are patent to the chemist, but these must be taken into account ; and for 

 this reason it is all-important that chemists and physicists should co-operate. 



The other contributions to the meeting were as follows : — 



Professor von Hklmholtz (communicated by Dr. Silvanus P. Thompson), ' Fur- 

 ther _ researches concerning the Electrolysis of Water.' — To be published by the 

 Physical Society in the forthcoming volume of von Helmholtz's Memoirs on 

 Electrolyses. 



Professor H. A. Eowland, ' On chemical action in a magnetic field.' Paper not 

 received. 



Professor Oliver J. Lodge, ' Experiments on the speed of ions.' Paper not 

 written out in time for this year's report. 



T. C. FiTZPATEicK (communicated by Mr. W. N. Shaw), ' On the action of the 

 solvent in electrolytic conduction.' — See the PMlowpMcal Magazine for November 



W. W. Haldane Gee, H. Holden, and C. H. Lees, ' On Electrolysis and Elec- 



