This is observed in, and is common to, all definite chemical compounds. This rule is called the law of multiple proportions. It was discovered by Dalton, and will be evolved in further detail subsequently in this work.
For the present we will only state that the law of definite composition enables the composition of substances to be expressed by formulæ, and the law of multiple proportions permits the application of whole numbers as coefficients of the symbols of the elements in these formulæ.
Thus the formula Na2CO3,10H2O shows directly that in this crystallo-hydrate there are 180 parts of water to 106 parts by weight of the anhydrous salt, because the formula of soda, Na2CO3, directly answers to a weight of 106, and the formula of water to 18 parts, by weight, which are here taken 10 times.
In the above examples of the combinations of water, we saw the gradually increasing intensity of the bond between water and a substance with which it forms a homogeneous compound.
There is a series of such compounds with water, in which the water is held with very great force, and is only given up at a very high temperature, and sometimes cannot be separated by any degree of heat without the entire decomposition of the substance.
In these compounds there is generally no outward sign whatever of their containing water. A perfectly new substance is formed from an anhydrous substance and water, in which sometimes the properties of neither one nor the other substance are observable.
In the majority of cases, a considerable amount of heat is evolved in the formation of such compounds with water. Sometimes the heat evolved is so intense that a red heat is produced and light is emitted. It is hardly to be wondered at, after this, that stable compounds are formed by such a combination. Their decomposition requires great heat; a large amount of work is necessary to separate them into their component parts.
All such compounds are definite, and, generally, completely and clearly definite. The number of such definite compounds with water or hydrates, in the narrow sense of the word, is generally inconsiderable for each anhydrous substance; in the greater number of cases, there is formed only one such combination of a substance with water, one hydrate, having so great a stability.
The water contained in these compounds is often called water of constitution—i.e. water which enters into the structure or composition of the given substance. By this it is desired to express, that in other cases the molecules of water are, as it were, separate from the molecules of that substance with which it is combined. It is supposed that in the formation of hydrates this water, even in the smallest particles, forms one complete whole with the anhydrous substance.
Many examples of the formation of such hydrates might be cited. The most familiar example in practice is the hydrate of lime, or so-called ‘slaked’ lime. Lime is prepared by burning limestone, by which the carbonic anhydride is expelled from it, and there remains a white stony mass, which is dense, compact, and rather tenacious. Lime is usually sold in this form, and bears the name of ‘quick’ or ‘unslaked’ lime. If water be poured over such lime, a great rise in temperature is remarked either directly, or after a certain time. The whole mass becomes hot, part of the water is evaporated, the stony mass in absorbing water crumbles into powder, and if the water be taken in sufficient quantity and the lime be pure and well burnt, not a particle of the original stony mass is left—it all