Note 54 — Front matter

'A large number of physical properties', says Nernst, 'have been shown to be clearly additive; that is, the value of the property in question can be calculated as though the compound were such a mixture of its elements that they experience no change in their properties.' But other properties are not additive. 'The kind of influence of the atom in a compound is primarily dependent on the mode of its union, that is, upon the constitution and configuration of the compound. Such non-additive properties may be called constitutive.' Quoted by E. G. Spaulding in The New Realism, p. 238.