In the first place, the theory of Arrhenius explains electrolysis very simply.  The ions which, so to speak, wander about haphazard, and are uniformly distributed throughout the liquid, steer a regular course as soon as we dip in the trough containing the electrolyte the two electrodes connected with the poles of the dynamo or generator of electricity.  Then the charged positive ions travel in the direction of the electromotive force and the negative ions in the opposite direction.  On reaching the electrodes they yield up to them the charges they carry, and thus pass from the state of ion into that of ordinary atom.  Moreover, for the solution to remain in equilibrium, the vanished ions must be immediately replaced by others, and thus the state of ionisation of the electrolyte remains constant and its conductivity persists.

All the peculiarities of electrolysis are capable of interpretation:  the phenomena of the transport of ions, the fine experiments of M. Bouty, those of Professor Kohlrausch and of Professor Ostwald on various points in electrolytic conduction, all support the theory.  The verifications of it can even be quantitative, and we can foresee numerical relations between conductivity and other phenomena.  The measurement of the conductivity permits the number of molecules dissociated in a given solution to be calculated, and the number is thus found to be precisely the same as that arrived at if it is wished to remove the disagreement between reality and the anticipations which result from the theory of Professor Van t’ Hoff.  The laws of cryoscopy, of tonometry, and of osmosis thus again become strict, and no exception to them remains.

If the dissociation of salts is a reality and is complete in a dilute solution, any of the properties of a saline solution whatever should be represented numerically as the sum of three values, of which one concerns the positive ion, a second the negative ion, and the third the solvent.  The properties of the solutions would then be what are called additive properties.  Numerous verifications may be attempted by very different roads.  They generally succeed very well; and whether we measure the electric conductivity, the density, the specific heats, the index of refraction, the power of rotatory polarization, the colour, or the absorption spectrum, the additive property will everywhere be found in the solution.

The hypothesis, so contested at the outset by the chemists, is, moreover, assuring its triumph by important conquests in the domain of chemistry itself.  It permits us to give a vivid explanation of chemical reaction, and for the old motto of the chemists, “Corpora non agunt, nisi soluta,” it substitutes a modern one, “It is especially the ions which react.”  Thus, for example, all salts of iron, which contain iron in the state of ions, give similar reactions; but salts such as ferrocyanide of potassium, in which iron does not play the part of an ion, never give the characteristic reactions of iron.