These hypotheses
are highly interesting, and very suggestive; but from the way in which
the facts have been set forth, it will appear, no doubt, that there is
no obligation to admit them in order to believe in the legitimacy of
the application of thermodynamics to the phenomena of solution.
Sec. 4. ELECTROLYTIC DISSOCIATION
From the outset Professor Van t' Hoff was brought to acknowledge that
a great number of solutions formed very notable exceptions which were
very irregular in appearance. The analogy with gases did not seem to
be maintained, for the osmotic pressure had a very different value
from that indicated by the theory. Everything, however, came right if
one multiplied by a factor, determined according to each case, but
greater than unity, the constant of the characteristic formula.
Similar divergences were manifested in the delays observed in
congelation, and disappeared when subjected to an analogous
correction.
Thus the freezing-point of a normal solution, containing a molecule
gramme (that is, the number of grammes equal to the figure
representing the molecular mass) of alcohol or sugar in water, falls
1.
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