Note 44 — Chapter I · ON WATER AND ITS COMPOUNDS

Inasmuch as the degree of change exhibited in many properties on the formation of solutions is not large, so, owing to the insufficient accuracy of observations, a proportionality between this change and a change of composition may, in a first rough approximation and especially within narrow limits of change of composition, easily be imagined in cases where it does not even exist. The conclusion of Michel and Kraft is particularly instructive in this respect; in 1854, on the basis of their incomplete researches, they supposed that the increment of the specific gravity of solutions was proportional to the increment of a salt in a given volume of a solution, which is only true for determinations of specific gravity which are exact to the second decimal place—an accuracy insufficient even for technical determinations. Accurate measurements do not confirm a proportionality either in this case or in many others where a ratio has been generally accepted; as, for example, for the rotatory power (with respect to the plane of polarisation) of solutions, and for their capillarity, &c. Nevertheless, such a method is not only still made use of, but even has its advantages when applied to solutions within a limited scope—as, for instance, very weak solutions, and for a first acquaintance with the phenomena accompanying solution, and also as a means for facilitating the application of mathematical analysis to the investigation of the phenomenon of solution. Judging by the results obtained in my researches on the specific gravity of solutions, I think that in many cases it would be nearer the truth to take the change of properties as proportional, not to the amount of a substance dissolved, but to the product of this quantity and the amount of water in which it is dissolved; the more so since many chemical relations vary in proportion to the reacting masses, and a similar ratio has been established for many phenomena of attraction studied by mechanics. This product is easily arrived at when the quantity of water in the solutions to be compared is constant, as is shown in investigating the fall of temperature in the formation of ice (see footnote 49, p. 91).