Reaction before Complete Equilibrium. All 



co-existence becomes possible. Thus we arrive at the necessary 

 conclusion that above and below the point of complete equilibrium 

 or the point of transition only one of the two opposite reactions 

 is taking place ; that the velocity of reaction is determined here 

 not by the masses or the total concentrations and the surface of 

 contact, but by the remoteness of the system from the point of 

 equilibrium and the surface of contact 2 + an instability constant 

 K. All three elements of the equation t — t, %, K are quite new 

 and none of them are contained in the equations J or the 

 velocity of reaction in homogeneous systems, and the latter cannot 

 be retained and applied for formulating the nature of the phenomena 

 in these regions. We further arrive at the necessary conclusion 

 that when the remoteness from the point of equilibrium becomes 

 equal to zero, no more reaction is taking plwe, and the complete 

 equilibrium as well as the point of transition are of a static 

 xot of A dynamic nature. 



C The connexion between the three kinds of equilibrium 

 and between the velocities of reaction in the three kinds of 

 heterogeneous systems. 



We are tbus unable even after the modifications made in 

 the laws of action of mass in heterogeneous systems (by the 

 introduction of the surface of contact of the reacting parts) 

 to connect all kinds of equilibrium and all kinds of velocity 

 of reaction under one general law. At the most we may 

 assume (neglecting even the very probable difference in the 

 values of the velocity constants for solution or separation of 

 salt or ice, &c.) that the only general result arrived at up to 

 the present in the above manner (by the introduction of the 

 surface of contact into the old conceptions) is that there are 

 in heterogeneous systems two great classes of phenomena, 

 which seem to be essentially different without, however, any 

 apparent reason : complete equilibrium and the point of 

 transition are of a static nature ; incomplete equilibrium in 

 heterogeneous systems is of a dynamic nature. Tn the first 

 only one of the two opposite reactions is taking place, before 

 equilibrium is arrived at, according as the system is above 

 or below the point of equilibrium, and non-action occurs at 

 equilibrium ; in the second, on the contrary, two opposite 

 reactions take place simultaneously before equilibrium is 

 arrived at, and both reactions still continue at equilibrium. 

 It remains now to see whether we cannot succeed in connect- 

 ing all kinds of equilibrium and all kinds of velocities of 

 reaction in heterogeneous systems under one general principle, 

 if we undertake this work of classification anew, putting aside 

 from our present conceptions everything which forms only 

 an interpretation of observed results, and retaining only what 



