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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. LI 



much weaker than that which accompanies certain types 

 of structural correspondence, such as that existing be- 

 tween a body and its mirror-image, or between a lock and 

 a key. Special structural relations of this sort probably 

 exist between stereochemical isomers, between acids and 

 bases, etc. It is easily conceivable that the patterns of 

 certain surfaces may be capable of distorting other special 

 configurations which come under their influence, so that 

 they fall into new equilibrium figures, without these 

 figures being of necessity identical with those of the 

 catalytic system. The general principles of the action, 

 however, remain the same. 



Catalytic sjTithesis is a less common process in the 

 laboratory than is destructive catalysis, but the laws of 

 energy necessitate both effects, if either one is possible. 

 Consequently the mechanism which we have described 

 above must be an exactly reversible one, and must assist 

 in the decomposition of molecular complexes as much as 

 it aids in their sjTithesis. The deposition of the mole- 

 cules to be decomposed, upon the catalytic surface would 

 naturally follow the same principles as those stated for 

 simple pohTnerization. In this state of deposition the 

 field forces of the crystal surface would inevitably have a 

 tendency to open up the field of the deposited molecule, 

 thus rendering it more unstable than before, in which con- 

 dition the temperature vibrations of the system could 

 break it up more easily than in the undeposited state. 



This weakening of the internal bonds of the molecule 

 in the field of the catalytic surface corresponds with the 

 weakening of forces of electrical attraction by increasing 

 the ''dielectric capacity" of the medium in which an elec- 

 trical system is contained. It is the same action which 

 permits water to dissociate neutral molecules into ions,^^ 

 and is probably responsible for the high catalytic power 

 of water, in general. However, in detail, the process must 

 be a ''personal" affair between individual water mole- 

 cules and molecules of the dissolved substance, just as 

 in the case of the crystal surface, since the ionizing effect 



26 Cf. Comstock and Troland, loc. cit., 139-140. 



