908 



SCIENCE. 



LiSl.S. Vol. XIX. No. 494. 



be postulated as a necessary deduction 

 fr.om the hypothesis of the atoms consist- 

 ing of uniform shells of positive electricity, 

 inclosing negative electrons arranged in ro- 

 tating rings, then the ionic conception will 

 of necessity yield place in electrochemical 

 science to the electronic. In this connec- 

 tion it ought to be noted that Professor 

 Thomson's inferences as to what consti- 

 tutes chemical combination, the electrically 

 neutral atoms losing or gaining electrons 

 and thus becoming positively or negatively 

 electrified, and therefore attracting each 

 other, agree with and supplement - to a 

 nicety the system of positive and negative 

 bonds elaborated twenty-five years ago by 

 our respected member. Professor 0. C. 

 Johnson. 



The nature of the act of solution bears so 

 fundamentally upon the mechanism of elec- 

 trolysis that light thrown upon it from 

 any direction is very welcome. Professor 

 J. H. L. Vogt, of the University of Chris- 

 tiania, has recently published the first sec- 

 tion of a work on the nature of fused sili- 

 cates which bears so directly upon the ques- 

 tion of fused baths, and particularly of the 

 condition of compounds dissolved in fused 

 baths, that the close study of his work will 

 undoubtedly assist the electrochemist in un- 

 derstanding fused bath electrolysis and, in 

 fact, the problem of solution in general. 

 It is, indeed, the fact that many bases dis- 

 solved in fused silicates retain their chem- 

 ical individuality, and can be proved to 

 exist there simply in an abnormal physical 

 condition. The analogous process in regard 

 to solution in water passes current under 

 the name of ionization, or electrolytic disso- 

 ciation. From these and similar investiga- 

 tions the conviction is being pressed upon 

 us that physical solution of one substance 

 in another covers a large part of the field 

 formerly supposed to be entirely chemical 

 in its nature, and that the eutectic mixtures 

 resulting are in no sense chemical com- 



pounds, but that the latter constitute nodes 

 or critical points of the mixtures, while in 

 between, in the ordinary run of solutions, 

 we are dealing simply with these chemical 

 compounds mutually dissolved in each 

 other, and in no other states than abnormal 

 physical states. The electrolysis of a sub- 

 stance in solution means usually, therefore, 

 the decomposition of that chemical sub- 

 stance existing in an abnormal physical 

 state, and not the act of gathering at the 

 electrodes the ions of the previous dis- 

 sociated chemical compound. 



These are the personal views of your 

 speaker, and are, of course, not put for- 

 ward as necessarily representing those of 

 any other member of this society. They 

 are given here because I believe that the 

 advance in electrochemical theory in the 

 near future will be in this direction and 

 along these lines. 



ni. APPLICATIONS TO INDUSTRIAL NEEDS. 



If electrochemistry concerned itself only 

 with the study of phenomena and their 

 classification, the deduction of laws and 

 the building of theories thereupon, it would 

 satisfy one of the fundamental needs of the 

 human mind, that of knowing, but would 

 leave unsatisfied another and equally vital 

 desire, that of using. 



As one indication of this we see the 

 program of our meeting classified into ex- 

 perimental, theoretical and industrial. (I 

 stand convicted of having, plagiarized the 

 plan of the program in laying out the sub- 

 jects of my address.) Without the latter 

 item the electrochemical field would remain 

 a thing apart from the sympathy of the 

 world at large, and it is really by reason 

 of the absorbing interest and great eco- 

 nomic value of these industrial applications- 

 that we have with us the support and co- 

 operation of the educated and the commer- 

 cial world. 



The various items in which, in industrial 

 chemistry and metallurgy, electroehemicai 



