PROrOPLAS]\IIC STRUCTURE 87 



state of dispersion, cataphoresis and electrical endosmosc, 

 and catalytic action. The action of electrolytes on 

 colloids shows many indications of adsorption effects; 

 those ions which other evidence indicates are in general 

 the most strongly adsorbed (H, OH, pol>'A'alent cations) 

 have a correspondingly marked influence on the colloirlal 

 state. The influence of adsorption is shown with 

 especial distinctness in the action of salts on ])r()tein 

 solutions, as Pauli's work has especially shown; the 

 characteristic curves relating temperatures of heat- 

 coagulation, melting points of gels, and precipitability 

 by alcohol to concentration of salt (when the salt is 

 present in excess of that required to form stoichiometric 

 compounds) are clearly of the adsorjDtion t^-pe/ The 

 same is true for the influence of salts on the osmotic 

 pressure of protein solutions.^ 



Apparently, in all processes where surface effects are 

 concerned, the different salts of the same metal dilTer in 

 their action according to the nature of their anions; 

 according to Rontgen and Schneider^ the order of rela- 

 tive adsorption of anions is S04<Cl<Br and X03<I; 

 this series corresponds to the characteristic lyotropic 

 series of Hofmeister, which is shown not only in the 

 above-cited work on proteins and in many of the physio- 

 logical effects produced by salts but also in various 

 purely physical phenomena involving surface factors 



' Cf. Pauli's book {loc. cit.) for references. 



2 The data in my paper (American Journal of Physiology, XX (1907), 

 127) show a relatively great depressant action on osmotic pressure for 

 low concentrations of salts and a cur\e corresponding to the adsor]nion 

 type. 



3 Rontgen and Schneider, Ann. Physik., XXIX (1SS6), 165. 



