June 17, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



907 



andi of porous diaphragms, the relation of 

 viscosity to electric conductivity and ionic 

 mobility, the limitation of the speed of 

 electrolysis by the diffusibility of the prod- 

 ucts, the solubility of metals in their own 

 fused salts, the function of gases in solu- 

 tion, the compounds of solvent with solute 

 and their relations to complex ions and the 

 mechanism of electrolysis, are only some of 

 the many phenomena whose investigation 

 has only begun, and which lie invitingly 

 before us. Professor A. A. Noyes has blazed 

 a new trail by his systematic work on the 

 electric conductivity of solutions at high 

 temperatures, and Dr. Kahlenberg by his 

 researches on the electrolysis of non- 

 aqueous solutions. Let these advise us 

 that there are as many new fields awaiting 

 attack as there are old ones needing thor- 

 ough exploration. 



In the whole realm of pure science 

 (meaning thereby the investigation and 

 classification of phenomena) there is no 

 field offering more attractions at the pres- 

 ent moment, none more ripe for exploita- 

 tion, none more promising of large rewards 

 for honest work, than electrochemistry. 

 The science is yet in its infancy; many of 

 its pioneers are yet living (the original 

 patentee of nickel plating contributes a 

 paper to this very meeting), and the gates 

 of opportunity are opened wide to every 

 one of us to go do likewise — to become 

 pioneers in our turn. 



11. the building of a comprehensive 

 eijEcteochemical theory. 



In this respect we must confess at the 

 outset that our science ig in a state of 

 transition. We know what we are aban- 

 doning, we hardly as yet grasp the newer 

 theory to which we are groping our way. 

 In the past plausible explanations have 

 been advanced which fitted the known facts 

 fairly well, only to be afterwards shattered 

 by new facts which could not be made to 

 ^t into the theory. Scientific theories must 



enlarge to fit the new truth or be broken by 

 it, and so our theories must be in a state of 

 constant flux if the science to which they 

 belong is a live, growing science, receiving 

 contiaually accretions of new truth. 



Not very long ago the burning electro- 

 chemical question was, 'Is the theory of 

 electrolytic dissociation the true explana- 

 tion of the nature of a solution?' I shall 

 not say that it is not, because I do not 

 know; but I am certain that the man is 

 making a mistake, whoever he may be, who 

 says that 'it is certainly true.' My own 

 conception of the state of solution is that 

 the solute is in an abnormal physical state, 

 having resemblance to the gaseous state, 

 and that in some cases a definite compound 

 of the solute with the solvent exists in the 

 solution, it also being in the abnormal phys- 

 ical state, but not abnormal chemically. 

 The grounds for this view would take too 

 long to explain, but they appear to me to 

 point to this as an explanation more satis- 

 factory than the assumption of an abnor- 

 mal chemical condition of dissociation. 



Large generalizations like the theory in 

 question, however, are very seldom directly 

 proven false; the evidence of their insuffi- 

 ciency simply accumulates until the convic- 

 tion arises or grows in men's minds that 

 something else explains the facts better, 

 and the older theory thus fades into the 

 background. At the present time the phys- 

 ical chemist, or perhaps rather the chem- 

 ical physicist, has thrown so much light 

 upon the structure of the atom by his dis- 

 coveries regarding electrons that it appears 

 as if a new and a very brilliant side-light 

 is about to be thrown upon the subject of 

 electrochemical phenomena. If it be true, 

 as Professor J. J. Thomson has apparently 

 just proved, that the arrangements of the 

 elements in families according to the pe- 

 riodic law, their periodic increase and de- 

 crease in valence, and change from electro- 

 positive to electronegative character, can 



