162 Prof. J. Traube: 
which he has proved that the osmotic laws are to be under- 
stood by simple kinetic considerations. But the objection 
was made that the existence of nothing but monohydrates, 
bihydrates, &c., seemed highly improbable ; and surely this 
objection would be justified did not this idea seem much more 
probable by the following considerations : 
Dutoit and Aston*, Dutoit and Friderich +, and Jones tf 
have shown that the mere a solvent is associated the greater 
is its power to dissociate the associated molecules of another 
associated liquid dissolved in it and to dissociate the molecules 
of an electrolyte into tts ions. 
This fact is only to be understood by supposing that the 
process of dissociation of an associated molecule or the process 
of ionization of a single one is connected with dissocations of 
double molecules of the solvent in such a way that every single 
molecule arising from the dissociated double molecule of the 
dissolved body joins with one single molecule of the solvent, and 
that every ton which results from the dissociation of the electro- 
lyte joons with one single molecule of the solvent. 
Dissolved molecules of electrolytes and of associated bodies 
are able to dissociate the associated molecules of a solvent 
and to join with them. Jones’s investigations especially, /. ¢., 
show that experiment has affirmed these assertions. 
A solvent, as water, may be considered as a solution of 
probably some single molecules in a great many complex 
molecules. If we dissolve an associated liquid like alcohol, 
the double molecules of alcohol are dissociated (compare 
Jones) ; and it is probable that at first the existing single 
molecules of water join with them in such a way that one 
molecule of aleohol wanders from one molecule of water to 
another. But then the equilibrium of the single and double 
molecules of the solvent is disturbed, and the further dissolved 
molecules of alcohol bring about the formation of new single 
molecules of water by dissociation of complex molecules of 
the solvent. 
We find quite the same considerations if we reflect over 
the process of dissolving an electrolyte, only with the differ- 
ence that here the ions, for instance Na and Cl, wander from 
one single molecule of water to another, and are able in the 
moment of their formation to dissociate the double molecules — 
of the water. 
Thus we get to the same results as by Poynting’s equation. 
Considering an associated solvent as a solution, and taking it 
* Dutoit & Aston, Compt. Rend. exxv. p. 240 (1897). 
t+ Dutoit & Friderich, Bull. Soe. Chim. [3] xix. p. 321. 
{ Jones, Boltzmann-Festschrift (Leipzig, Barth), p. 105 (1904). 
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