Interfacial forces and phenomena in physiology : being the Herter lectures in New York in March, 1922 / by Sir William M. Bayliss; with seven diagrams.

  • Bayliss, William Maddock, Sir, 1860-1924.
Date:
[1923]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Interfacial forces and phenomena in physiology : being the Herter lectures in New York in March, 1922 / by Sir William M. Bayliss; with seven diagrams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    various factors are concerned, both chemical and physical, one or the other being pre- dominant according to circumstances. An exclusive adherence to either of these alone presents difficulties. The thermodynamical treatment of adsorption adopted by Willard Gibbs is familiar to all. We have seen that most solutes depress the surface tension of the liquid in which they are dissolved. If they become concentrated in the surface they will have more effect in this way. Now the surface film possesses free energy and the second law of energetics tells us that free energy always decreases, if it can. Thus we expect to find concentration of the solute in the interface. Gibbs has further proposed a mathematical expres- sion on the basis of surface tension of the mechanical kind. Experimental work has shown that there are some cases which follow the Gibbs formula, while in other cases more solute is adsorbed than cor- responds to the amount expected. It appears that these cases which do not follow