Efflorescence.--From Fig. 19 we are enabled to predict the conditions under which a given hydrated salt will effloresce when exposed to the air. We have just learned that copper {87} sulphate pentahydrate, for example, will not be formed unless the pressure of the aqueous vapour reaches a certain value; and that conversely, if the vapour pressure falls below the dissociation pressure of the pentahydrate, this salt will undergo dehydration. From this, then, it is evident that a crystalline salt hydrate will effloresce when exposed to the air, if the partial pressure of the water vapour in the air is lower than the dissociation pressure of the hydrate. At the ordinary temperature the dissociation pressure of copper sulphate is less than the pressure of water vapour in the air, and therefore copper sulphate does not effloresce. In the case of sodium sulphate decahydrate, however, the dissociation pressure is greater than the normal vapour pressure in a room, and this salt therefore effloresces. [Illustration: FIG. 20.] Indefiniteness of the Vapour Pressure of a Hydrate.--Reference has already been made (p. 84), in the case of the ammonia compounds of the metal chlorides, to the importance of the solid product of dissociation for the definition of the dissociation pressure. Similarly also in the case of a hydrated salt. A salt hydrate in contact with vapour constitutes only a bivariant system, and can exist therefore at different values of temperature and pressure of vapour, as is seen from the diagram, Fig. 19. Anhydrous copper sulphate can exist in contact with water vapour at all values of temperature and pressure lying in the field below the curve OC; and the hydrate CuSO_{4},H_{2}O can exist in contact with vapour at all values of temperature and pressure in the field BOC. Similarly, each of the other hydrates can exist in contact with vapour at different values of temperature and pressure.