THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[SIXTH SERIES.] 



DECEMBER 1910. 



CIII. The Attraction Constant of a Molecule of a Suostance 

 and its Chemical Properties. By R. D. Kleeman, D.Sc, 

 B.A., Mackinnon Student of the Royal Society*. 



FROM the surface-tension of liquids and the latent heat o£ 

 evaporation the writer f has deduced the nature of the 

 law of attraction between molecules which gives rise to these 

 properties of liquids. It follows from the nature of surface- 

 tension and the heat of evaporation that the law obtained 

 does not necessarily apply to distances between the attracting 

 molecules less than the distance of separation of molecules in 

 the liquid state. Molecules and atoms may approach much 

 nearer to one another than this distance, as happens for 

 example in the polymerization of molecules and the com- 

 bination of atoms to form a molecule. It is not impossible, 

 therefore, that another force of attraction of a different 

 nature exists besides that brought out by the above investi- 

 gation, which operates effectively only when the distance of 

 the attracting molecules or atoms is less than the distance of 

 separation of molecules in the liquid state. Such a force of 

 attraction, if it exists, would assist in producing chemical 

 combination. It seems improbable, however, that any other 

 force of attraction should exist than that which gives rise to 

 surface-tension, and that this is therefore the force tending 

 to produce chemical combination. Whether that is so or not 



* Communicated by the Author ; some of the results in this paper 

 have been given in a paper read before the Meeting- of the British Asso- 

 ciation in Sheffield this year. 



t Phil. Mag-. May 1910, pp. 783-809. 



Phil. Mag. S. 6. Vol. 20. No. 120. Dec. 1910. 3 O 



