Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/44

40 usually slow and possibly unrecognizable rate of isomeric change may be made apparent and measurable, a substance the existence of which could not be recognized under ordinary circumstances, owing to its infinitesimal amount, may be induced to exist in weighable quantity, if the velocity of its formation from an isomeride can be greatly accelerated by the presence of an appropriate catalytic agent. I am not aware that attempts have been made in this direction. The discovery of catalytic agents is, as a rule, the result of accident. I do not think that any guide exists which would enable us to predict that any particular substance would cause an acceleration or a retardation of any particular reaction. But catalytic agents are generally those which themselves, by their power of combining with or parting with oxygen, or some other element, cause the transfer of that element to other compounds to take place with increased or diminished velocity. It is possible, therefore, to cause ordinary reactions to take place in presence of a third body, choosing the third body with a view to its catalytic action, and to examine carefully the products of the main reaction as regards their nature and their quantity. Attempts have been made in this direction with marked success; the rate of change of hydrogen dioxide, for example, has been fairly well studied. But what has been done for that compound may be extended indefinitely to others, and doubtless with analogous results. Indications of the existence of as yet undiscovered compounds may be derived from a study of physical, and particularly of electrical, changes. There appears to be sufficient evidence of an oxide of hydrogen containing more oxygen than hydrogen dioxide, from a study of the electromotive force of a cell containing hydrogen dioxide; yet the higher oxide still awaits discovery.

The interpretation of chemical change in the light of the ionic theory may now be taken as an integral part of inorganic chemistry. The ordinary reactions of qualitative and quantitative analysis are now almost universally ascribed to the ions, not to the molecules. And the study of the properties of most ions falls into the province of the inorganic chemist. To take a familiar example: The precipitation of hydroxides by means of ammonia-solution has long led to the hypothesis that the solution contained ammonium hydroxide; and, indeed, the teaching of the text-books and the labels on the bottles supported this view. But we know now that a solution of ammonia in water is a complex mixture of liquid ammonia and liquid water; of ammonium hydroxide, NH4OH; and of ions of ammonium (NH4)′, and hydroxyl (OH)′. Its reactions, therefore, are those of such a complex mixture. If brought into contact with a solution of some substance which will withdraw the hydroxyl ions, converting them into water, or into some non-ionized substance, they are replaced at the expense of the molecules of non-ionized ammonium hydroxide; and these, when diminished in amount, draw on the store of molecules of ammonia and water, which combine, so as to maintain equilibrium, Now the investigation of such