Production of Soap Jellies. 



117 



adsorbed, and more or less readily adsorbed cations. If at this 

 critical point, the sum total of adsorbed anions is not sufficiently 

 in excess of that of adsorbed cations to insure perfect dispersion, 

 precipitation instead of jelly formation ensues. This explains the 

 necessity for a certain minimum concentration of NaOH, with its 

 readily adsorbed OH ions, to insure jelly formation in the case 

 cited above. 



It must be presumed that at the moment at which the particles 

 suffer a sufficient loss of charge no longer to repell one another, they 

 tend to coalesce with one another, and also become distorted and 

 elongated into films and rods under the influence of changing sur- 

 face tension conditions. It is obvious if they are sufficiently 

 finely dispersed at this point that each particle will coalesce with its 

 neighbor to form a jelly-like structure (analogous in a sense to a 

 honey-comb) enclosing globules of water between the coalescing 

 particles of the original dispersed phase, the structure retaining 

 the form of the original containing vessel. If on the other hand 

 the particles were not sufficiently dispersed at the time at which 

 coalescences commenced, if they were already partly aggregated 

 and no longer exhibiting perfect Brownian movement, they would 

 no longer be perfectly distributed throughout the entire mixture, 

 they would be further apart and, as a result of the diminution of 

 their charge, would tend to aggregate and precipitate to the bottom 

 of the vessel. 



There are obviously a large variety of possible intermediary 

 structures between the most perfect jelly formation, resembling 

 a honeycomb, which would be impermeable to water, and the 

 precipitated structure which would be absolutely permeable. 

 Various degrees of permeability would result from the production 

 of systems analogous to a sponge in which two continuous phases 

 exist side by side, and the permeability of such systems would de- 

 pend upon the extent to which intercommunication between ad- 

 jacent partially enclosed aqueous phases has been maintained. 



Further experiments with CaCl2 and soap suspensions confirmed 

 this theory and afford a satisfactory explanation for the phe- 

 nomena of blood coagulation, the production of the casein clot, 

 and other cases of jelly formation actuated by salts of Ca. The 

 conversion of a system consisting of particles of fibrinogen dis- 



