The Principles of Chemistry, Volume IMendeleyev, Dmitry Ivanovich
Science
The Principles of Chemistry, Volume I
Mendeleyev, Dmitry Ivanovich
Argon; Chemistry; Periodic law
(the experiment lasted several months), which would set up currents in
the liquids and intermix their strata. Notwithstanding the uniformity
of the temperature, the substance in solution in time ascended into the
water and distributed itself uniformly through it, proving that there
exists between water and a substance dissolved in it a particular kind
of attraction or striving for mutual interpenetration in opposition to
the force of gravity. Further, this effort, or rate of diffusion, is
different for salt or sugar or for various other substances.[16 bis] It
follows therefore that a peculiar force acts in solution, as in actual
chemical combinations, and solution is determined by a particular kind
of motion (by the chemical energy of a substance) which is proper to the
substance dissolved and to the solvent.
[16 bis] Graham, in the jelly formed by gelatine, and De Vries in
gelatinous silica (Chapter XVIII.) most frequently employed
coloured (tinted) substances, for instance, K_{2}Cr_{2}O_{7},
which showed the rate of diffusion with very great clearness.
Prof. Oumoff employed the method described in Chapter X., Note
17, for this purpose.
Graham made a series of experiments similar to those above described,
and showed that the _rate of diffusion_[17] in water is very
variable--that is, a uniform distribution of a substance in the water
dissolving it is attained in different periods of time with different
solutions. Graham compared diffusive capacity with volatility. There are
substances which diffuse easily, and there are others which diffuse with
difficulty, just as there are more or less volatile substances. Seven
hundred cubic centimetres of water were poured into a jar, and by means
of a syphon (or a pipette) 100 cub. centimetres of a solution containing
10 grams of a substance were cautiously poured in so as to occupy the
lower portion of the jar. After a lapse of several days, successive
layers of 50 cubic centimetres were taken from the top downwards, and
the quantity of substance dissolved in the different layers determined.
Thus, common table salt, after fourteen days, gave the following amounts
(in milligrams) in the respective layers, beginning from the top: 104,
120, 126, 198, 267, 340, 429, 535, 654, 766, 881, 991, 1,090, 1,187,
and 2,266 in the remainder; whilst albumin in the same time gave, in
the first seven layers, a very small amount, and beginning from the
eighth layer, 10, 15, 47, 113, 343, 855, 1,892, and in the remainder
6,725 milligrams. Thus, the diffusive power of a solution depends on
time and on the nature of the substance dissolved, which fact may
serve, not only for explaining the process of solution, but also for
distinguishing one substance from another. Graham showed that substances
which rapidly diffuse through liquids are able to rapidly pass through
membranes and crystallise, whilst substances which diffuse slowly and do
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