We should not hesitate, however, to apply the Phase Law to solutions, and this law already gives us the key to a certain number of facts.  It puts in evidence, for example, the part played by the eutectic point—­ that is to say, the point at which (to keep to the simple case in which we have to do with two bodies only, the solvent and the solute) the solution is in equilibrium at once with the two possible solids, the dissolved body and the solvent solidified.  The knowledge of this point explains the properties of refrigerating mixtures, and it is also one of the most useful for the theory of alloys.  The scruples of physicists ought to have been removed on the memorable occasion when Professor Van t’Hoff demonstrated that solution can operate reversibly by reason of the phenomena of osmosis.  But the experiment can only succeed in very rare cases; and, on the other hand, Professor Van t’Hoff was naturally led to another very bold conception.  He regarded the molecule of the dissolved body as a gaseous one, and assimilated solution, not as had hitherto been the rule, to fusion, but to a kind of vaporization.  Naturally his ideas were not immediately accepted by the scholars most closely identified with the classic tradition.  It may perhaps not be without use to examine here the principles of Professor Van t’Hoff’s theory.

Sec. 2.  OSMOSIS

Osmosis, or diffusion through a septum, is a phenomenon which has been known for some time.  The discovery of it is attributed to the Abbe Nollet, who is supposed to have observed it in 1748, during some “researches on liquids in ebullition.”  A classic experiment by Dutrochet, effected about 1830, makes this phenomenon clear.  Into pure water is plunged the lower part of a vertical tube containing pure alcohol, open at the top and closed at the bottom by a membrane, such as a pig’s bladder, without any visible perforation.  In a very short time it will be found, by means of an areometer for instance, that the water outside contains alcohol, while the alcohol of the tube, pure at first, is now diluted.  Two currents have therefore passed through the membrane, one of water from the outside to the inside, and one of alcohol in the converse direction.  It is also noted that a difference in the levels has occurred, and that the liquid in the tube now rises to a considerable height.  It must therefore be admitted that the flow of the water has been more rapid than that of the alcohol.  At the commencement, the water must have penetrated into the tube much more rapidly than the alcohol left it.  Hence the difference in the levels, and, consequently, a difference of pressure on the two faces of the membrane.  This difference goes on increasing, reaches a maximum, then diminishes, and vanishes when the diffusion is complete, final equilibrium being then attained.