Certain phenomena relative to the effect of concentration (mass action) in determining chemical change—many of which have been studied by Ostwald and his pupils, as, for example, why two dilute solutions can be mixed together without thermal disturbance; numerous hydrolytic actions; the alkalinity and acidity of salts on solution; the behaviour of the “indicators” in analysis; such phenomena as the precipitability of common salt in aqueous solution by hydrogen chloride; the influence of an excess of a precipitant; the varying behaviour of reagents; the varying colour of salt solutions; the reason why water is formed in so many reactions; why a potential difference occurs at the surface of two electrolytic solutions, etc.—phenomena for the most part otherwise unintelligible, are all capable of explanation by means of it.
Although, in the above statement, we have been mainly concerned with aqueous solutions, it should be said that the theory of ionisation is applicable to other solvents, organic and inorganic. Moreover, it should be added, the theory has not been universally accepted as accounting for all the phenomena of solution. Many substances form definite hydrates which can be isolated, and it is a moot point whether such hydrates are capable of existing in aqueous solution, as contended by Mendeléeff, Pickering, Kahlenberg, Armstrong, and others. Such hydrates are, however, unstable compounds, affected by temperature changes, and dissociable on dilution in accordance with the law of concentration (mass action). Further, there is evidence, largely based on the work of Kohlrausch, H. C. Jones, and Lowry, to show that the ions in aqueous solutions of electrolytes are themselves hydrated.
Limitations of space preclude further attempts to deal with the development of physical chemistry during the last half-century, and many important matters must remain practically unnoticed.
The subject of thermo-chemistry is mainly the creation of the last half-century, elaborated by the labours of Hess, Andrews, Thomsen, Favre and Silbermann, and Berthelot. The work of Wenzel and Berthollet on the influence of molecular concentration on chemical change has been greatly extended by Berthelot, Guldberg and Waage, Julius Thomsen, Van ’t Hoff, Harcourt and Esson, and Le Chatelier; and the theory of mass action and the nature of reversible processes are now capable of definite expression, and can be proved independently by thermo-dynamical and kinetic reasoning. The phenomena of catalysis and the action of enzymes and of fermentation in general have received attention from many investigators. The phenomena of gaseous transpiration have been studied by Graham, Maxwell, and O. E. Meyer. Thermal dissociation has been experimentally observed by Deville, Troost, and others, and mathematically investigated by Willard Gibbs and Van der Waals; and its analogy to electrolytic dissociation has been established. The nature of gaseous explosions has been investigated by Berthelot, Le Chatelier, Abel, and Dixon. Important work has been done by Gladstone, Lorentz, Landolt, Nasini, Brühl, and others, on the connection between the nature and constitution of substances and their optical characters. Similar work has been done by Sir William Perkin as regards their magnetic rotation, and by Thorpe and Rodger with reference to their viscosity. The theory of phases, originating with Gibbs and developed by Van der Waals and Roozeboom, has been greatly extended. Sir J. J. Thomson and Sir J. Larmor have elaborated an electrical theory of the atom. Barlow and Pope have traced the relation between valency and volume, and the accurate measurements of Groth and of Tutton have extended our knowledge of the crystallographic relations of correlated substances.