It will also be useful, in order to avoid
confusion, to restate with precision this notion of electrolytic ions,
and to ascertain their magnitude, charge, and velocity.
The two classic laws of Faraday will supply us with important
information. The first indicates that the quantity of electricity
passing through the liquid is proportional to the quantity of matter
deposited on the electrodes. This leads us at once to the
consideration that, in any given solution, all the ions possess
individual charges equal in absolute value.
The second law may be stated in these terms: an atom-gramme of metal
carries with it into electrolysis a quantity of electricity
proportionate to its valency.[19]
[Footnote 19: The valency or atomicity of an element may be defined as
the power it possesses of entering into compounds in a certain fixed
proportion. As hydrogen is generally taken as the standard, in
practice the valency of an atom is the number of hydrogen atoms it
will combine with or replace. Thus chlorine and the rest of the
halogens, the atoms of which combine with one atom of hydrogen, are
called univalent, oxygen a bivalent element, and so on.
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