Chemical Affinity.

Abstract

IN the older days, chemists were willing to think that, when they had said of a chemical occurrence, “It is a manifestation of the affinities of the reacting bodies,” they had given a fair explanation of the occurrence. Nowadays, we rather avoid the term affinity. The modern chemist is not comforted by the word as his fathers were. Phrases, he knows, have a way of decoying a man to destruction. But, although he does not use the word affinity so much, the chemist is more eager than ever to understand the modes of action of affinity.