Greene which he expresses in these words: "It is, therefore,
extremely probable that ammonium chloride is almost entirely
dissociated, even at the temperature of volatilization." By Boettinger's
apparatus a decomposition may possibly have been demonstrated, but it
remains to be seen whether it is not due to some special cause.
When Mr. Greene says that the relations between the physical properties
of solids and liquids and their molecular composition can in no
manner affect the laws of gases, nobody is likely to dissent; but the
conclusion that their discussion is foreign to the question of the
number of molecules in unit of volume does by no means follow. If the
specific gravity of a solid or the weight of unit of volume represents
a certain number of molecules, and is found to occupy two volumes in a
compound of the solid with another solid, the number of molecules in one
volume is reduced to one half. This I have shown to be the case in a
number of compounds, and the decrease of the specific gravity with
increase of the complexity of composition appears to be a general law,
as may be concluded from the very low specific gravity of the most
highly organized compounds, for instance the fatty bodies, the molecules
of which, being composed of very many constituents, are of heavy weight;
and likewise the compounds which occur in combination with water and
without it, the simpler compound having invariably a greater specific
gravity than the one combined with water; for instance:
BaH_2O_2 sp.
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