X. Liquid diffusion applied to analysis (1861)

Abstract The property of volatility, possessed in various degrees by so many substances, affords invaluable means of separation, as is seen in the ever-recurring processes of evaporation and distillation. So similar in character to volatility is the Diffusive power possessed by all liquid substances, that we may fairly reckon upon a class of analogous analytical resources to arise from it. The range also in the degree of diffusive mobility exhibited by different substances appears to be as wide as the scale of vapour tensions. Thus hydrate of potash may be said to possess double the velocity of diffusion of sulphate of potash, and sulphate of potash again double the velocity of sugar, alcohol, and sulphate of magnesia. But the substances named belong all, as regards diffusion, to the more “volatile” class. The comparatively “fixed” class, as regards diffusion, is represented by a different order of chemical substances, marked out by the absence of the power to crystallize, which are slow in the extreme. Among the latter are hydrated silicic acid, hydrated alumina, and other metallic peroxides of the aluminous class, when they exist in the soluble form; with starch, dextrin and the gums, caramel, tannin, albumen, gelatine, vegetable and animal extractive matters. Low diffusibility is not the only property which the bodies last enumerated possess in common. They are distinguished by the gelatinous character of their hydrates. Although often largely soluble in water, they are held in solution by a most feeble force. They appear singularly inert in the capacity of acids and bases, and in all the ordinary chemical relations. But, on the other hand, their peculiar physical aggregation with the chemical indifference referred to, appears to be required in substances that can intervene in the organic processes of life. The plastic elements of the animal body are found in this class. As gelatine appears to be its type, it is proposed to designate substances of the class as colloids, and to speak of their peculiar form of aggregation as the colloidal condition of matter. Opposed to the colloidal is the crystalline condition. Substances affecting the latter form will be classed as crystalloids. The distinction is no doubt one of intimate molecular constitution. Although chemically inert in the ordinary sense, colloids possess a compensating activity of their own arising out of their physical properties. While the rigidity of the crystalline structure shuts out external impressions, the softness of the gelatinous colloid partakes of fluidity, and enables the colloid to become a medium for liquid diffusion, like water itself. The same penetrability appears to take the form of cementation in such colloids as can exist at a high temperature. Hence a wide sensibility on the part of colloids to external agents. Another and eminently characteristic quality of colloids, is their mutability. Their existence is a continued metastasis. A colloid may be compared in this respect to water while existing liquid at a temperature under its usual freezing-point, or to a supersaturated saline solution. Fluid colloids appear to have always a pectous modification; and they often pass under the slightest influences from the first into the second condition. The solution of hydrated silicic acid, for instance, is easily obtained in a state of purity, but it cannot be preserved. It may remain fluid for days or weeks in a sealed tube, but is sure to gelatinize and become insoluble at last. Nor does the change of this colloid appear to stop at that point. For the mineral forms of silicic acid, deposited from water, such as flint, are often found to have passed, during the geological ages of their existence, from the vitreous or colloidal into the crystalline condition (H. Rose). The colloidal is, in fact, a dynamical state of matter; the crystalloidal being the statical condition. The colloid possesses energia. It may be looked upon as the probable primary source of the force appearing in the phenomena of vitality. To the gradual manner in which colloidal changes take place (for they always demand time as an element), may the characteristic protraction of chemico-organic changes also be referred.