Page:Scientific Papers of Josiah Willard Gibbs.djvu/98

62 which apply to different classes of phenomena. For this purpose we shall use the second form of the criterion of equilibrium, both because it admits more readily the introduction of the condition that there shall be no thermal communication between the different parts of the system, and because it is more convenient, as respects the form of the general equations relating to equilibrium, to make the entropy one of the independent variables which determine the state of the system, than to make the energy one of these variables.

In order to arrive as directly as possible at the most characteristic and essential laws of chemical equilibrium, we will first give our attention to a case of the simplest kind. We will examine the conditions of equilibrium of a mass of matter of various kinds enclosed in a rigid and fixed envelop, which is impermeable to and unalterable by any of the substances enclosed, and perfectly non-conducting to heat. We will suppose that the case is not complicated by the action of gravity, or by any electrical influences, and that in the solid portions of the mass the pressure is the same in every direction. We will farther simplify the problem by supposing that the variations of the parts of the energy and entropy which depend upon the surfaces separating heterogeneous masses are so small in comparison with the variations of the parts of the energy and entropy which depend upon the quantities of these masses, that the former may be neglected by the side of the latter; in other words, we will exclude the considerations which belong to the theory of capillarity.

It will be observed that the supposition of a rigid and non-conducting envelop enclosing the mass under discussion involves no real loss of generality, for if any mass of matter is in equilibrium, it would also be so, if the whole or any part of it were enclosed in an envelop as supposed; therefore the conditions of equilibrium for a mass thus enclosed are the general conditions which must always be satisfied in case of equilibrium. As for the other suppositions which have been made, all the circumstances and considerations which are here excluded will afterward be made the subject of special discussion.

Let us first consider the energy of any homogeneous part of the given mass, and its variation for any possible variation in the