Papers on etherification and on the constitution of salts / by Alexander W. Williamson ... (1850-1856).

  • Alexander William Williamson
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Papers on etherification and on the constitution of salts / by Alexander W. Williamson ... (1850-1856). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    ON THE CONSTITUTION OF SALTS* HERE is strong reason for believing that all X questions concerning the chemical constitution of matter will be most tangible when considered from the point of view of the constitution of salts, which are the groups whose arrangement and transformations are most susceptible of being ascertained experi- mentally. The elementary bodies themselves have been now shown f to obey a certain force of combina- tion between their particles, analogous though generally inferior to that which holds together the constituents of a salt ; and any general conclusions which may be established for salts, will therefore extend to them. Now, to have clear and connected notions of any order of phaenomena, it is necessary to be able to judge of the various cases belonging to it from the same point of view ; or, in other words, to have a uniform standard of comparison. Thus if the value of mechanical forces had to be compared, it would evidently not do to measure the one in pounds and the other in kilogrammes, unless the relative value of these units were known, i. e. unless the statement made in the one could be reduced to its equivalent in the other. Such unity has as yet been but little attended to by the majority of chemists ; and the different branches of the science remaining discon- nected, their efforts were directed to establish details rather than general laws. Thanks to the numerous * [From The Chemical Gazelle, vol. ix. (1851), pp. 334-339.] t See Mr Brodie's research On the Condition of certain Elements at the moment of Chemical Change.