Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 edition. Excerpt: ...that the sphere-forming influence is not merely an inert opposition, such as may be offered by the single quality of viscidity. The plates of uric acid flashed out in the crystalline silica, while the spheres and their allies formed in the same time only clouds of whitish matter in the gelatinous silica. The molecular arrangement of the two silicas must evidently be the chief determining condition of this difference, and the gradual change in the crystals in the second experiment, corresponding to the change in the molecular condition of the silica, is very eloquent in support of this idea Throughout a long series, comprehending several hundreds, of experiments, many of them frequently repeated, viscidity as a sign of mere close package of molecules has appeared to me to be of little influence in disturbing crystalline polarities. Throughout there has been an evidence of the working of active forces rather than of inertias--of tensions, in solutions at crystallising point, in solutions of substances subject to mutual decompositions; of movements in substances undergoing internal molecular redistribution or re-arrangement, in change of temperature, in currents of electricity. Enclosed in the hydrochloric solution of silica, the uric acid, at first typical in its crystalline character, is seen slowly bent and distorted by the molecular whirls and eddies which are slowly transforming its bed. The acid urates themselves pass rapidly through phases of consistence even more comprehensive than those of silica. By bringing to bear upon them the combined influence of strong solutions of chloride of sodium and of gelatin, I have obtained them in a very plastic state. Exp. 7.--A saturated solution of urate of soda and uric acid was mixed with...
