Arrhenius, had not been brought to the same idea by
another road, and, had not by stating it precisely and modifying it,
presented it in an acceptable form.
A brief examination will easily show that all the substances which are
exceptions to the laws of Van t'Hoff are precisely those which are
capable of conducting electricity when undergoing decomposition--that
is to say, are electrolytes. The coincidence is absolute, and cannot
be simply due to chance.
Now, the phenomena of electrolysis have, for a long time, forced upon
us an almost necessary image. The saline molecule is always
decomposed, as we know, in the primary phenomenon of electrolysis into
two elements which Faraday termed ions. Secondary reactions, no doubt,
often come to complicate the question, but these are chemical
reactions belonging to the general order of things, and have nothing
to do with the electric action working on the solution. The simple
phenomenon is always the same--decomposition into two ions, followed
by the appearance of one of these ions at the positive and of the
other at the negative electrode.
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