(4) If one of the ions of acetic acid is ‹suppressed› by the addition of some agent, equilibrium is again destroyed and the resulting change is always in the direction of reëstablishing a condition of equilibrium on the basis of the law of equilibrium. Instances of this common case, such as the ‹neutralization› of acetic or any other acid by a base, or the ‹driving out› of a ‹weak› acid, from its salts, by a strong acid, or of a ‹weak› base by a ‹strong› base, considered from the point of view of the equilibrium law, should be worked out by the student.[221] [p115]
(5) The displacement of an acid (or base) in salts by another acid (or base) is subject always to the law that equilibrium is reached, when all the equilibrium constants are satisfied in the system. Very frequently, the application of the law will lead, apparently, to the incorrect conclusion that the stronger acid (or base) will ‹always› displace, more or less completely, the weaker[222]—an inference, out of which grew, indeed, the characterization of acids and bases as strong and weak. Yet, when the laws of equilibrium, as the result of the peculiar values of constants, demand that, on the contrary, a strong acid or base should be displaced by a weak, or even a feeble one, we find that the change in this direction occurs with equal ease. Numerous instances will be given where a weak acid (or a weak base) does this to a certain extent (Chap. X), and others where precipitation of salts facilitates the action of weaker acids greatly by the introduction of new, physical constants. The following case of the liberation of hydrochloric acid by the exceedingly weak acid, hydrocyanic acid, is important because it shows a reversal of the common action without the formation of any precipitate, and especially because it brings out most strikingly the relations between ionization and chemical activity in a case of special importance to analytical chemists.
«The Exceptional Ionization of Mercuric Cyanide and Its Consequences.»—We have found that practically all salts are very readily ionized. But it was mentioned that there are a few exceptions to this rule, and mercuric chloride and especially mercuric cyanide were named as the most important exceptions from the point of view of analytical chemistry. The difference in ionization between these two salts and ordinary salts may be shown readily by the apparatus previously used to demonstrate the difference in the ionization of various bases and acids.