118 T. S. Hunt — Chemical Integration. 



The subject of homogeneous disintegration by heat is further 

 illustrated by the vapor of nitric peroxyd, of acetic acid, of 

 paraldehyde and of turpentine-oil. These integers of varying 

 densities, and of varying equivalent weights, alike of so-called 

 elements and of compounds having a similar centesimal compo- 

 sition may be conveniently designated higher and lower 

 integers ; the terms implying at the same time higher and lower 

 specific gravities, and higher and lower equivalent or integral 

 weights, since the density or specific gravity — as is well 

 known, varies as the equivalent weight in the case of gases and 

 vapors. 



§ 5. A similar direct relation between equivalent weight and 

 specific gravity in liquids and in solids was first indicated by 

 the writer in 1848, and was again urged in 1853.* It was fur- 

 ther insisted upon in a communication to the French Academy 

 of Sciences in 1855, where after saying that "since the chemical 

 combination of two bodies is to be regarded as an interpenetra- 

 tion of masses, and not as a juxtaposition of molecules, the 

 atomic hypothesis is not necessary for the explanation of the 

 law of equivalent weights," it was added : " Their densities thus 

 furnish us a means of fixing the equivalent weights of gases, 

 and of bodies which volatilize without decomposition, and it 

 remains to be determined if some law as simple as that of Gray- 

 Lussac would not permit us to fix by similar means the equiva- 

 lents of solids and non-volatile bodies. "f The further develop- 

 ment of this problem in subsequent years we have discussed at 

 length in the volume cited above. 



§ 6. In accordance with this conception the writer, in 1853, 

 spoke of " that mode of metamorphosis which constitutes poly- 

 merism." The conception of polymerism or homogeneous 

 integration as of universal application in chemistry was further 

 insisted upon in 1867, when it was asserted that "the gas or 

 vapor of a volatile body constitutes a species distinct from the 

 same body in its liquid or solid state, the chemical formula of 

 the latter being some multiple of the first; and the liquid and 

 solid species often [probably always] constitute two distinct 

 species of different equivalent weights." It was at the same 

 time further asserted of the liquid and solid alcohols, acids, 



* See the author's lately published volume. A New Basis for Chemistry, pp. 11, 

 12 and 3tt, 39, wherein the citations given below in this paragraph were, by inad- 

 vertence, omitted. 



f Sur les Volumes Atomiques, Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences, 

 xli, 77-81. "Puisque la combinaison chimique de deux corps doit etre regardee 

 comme une interpenetration des masses et nou pas une juxtaposition des molecules, 

 l'hypothese atomique n'est pas necessaire pour expliquer la loi des poids equiva- 

 lents." "Les densites nous fournissent ainsi un rnoyen de fixer les poids 

 equivalents des gas et des corps qui sont vaporizables sans decomposition, et il 

 restait a determiner si quelque loi aussi simple que celle de Gay Lussac ne nous 

 permettrait pas de fixer par un moyen semblable les equivalents des corps solids 

 et non volatiles." 



