Svante August ArrheniusAuthor(s): James KendallSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 25, No. 5 (Nov., 1927), pp. 478-479Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/7938 .

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478 THE SCIENTIFIC MON THLY

SVANTE AUGUST ARRHENIUS

THE death of Professor Arrhenius, which occurred at Stockholm on October 2, deprives physical science of its most remarkable leader. Arrhenius was born near Upsala in 1859, and first leaped into fame when, as a young man of twenty- five, he published his doctor's disserta- tion entitled, "Researches on the Con- ductivity of Electrolytes." This thesis contained the first guarded indication of what is known as the ionization theory, a detailed elaboration of which followed a few years later. According to the ioniza- tion theory of Arrhenius, a salt such as sodium chloride is largely broken up in aqueous solution into electrically charged ions, e.g., sodium ions and chlorine ions, and this simple assumption has served as the basis for astonishing advances in our knowledge of the physical chemistry of solutions during the last forty years. Arrhenius encountered, however, most violent opposition from many quarters, and only through the enthusiastic sup- port of Ostwald did his theory gain gen- eral acceptance. Oddly enough, while the ideas of Arrhenius were long re- garded as entirely too revolutionary by many chemists, the existence of free sodium ions and free chlorine ions in the same solution being considered an impos- sibility even by his own professors, more recent advances have led to the conclu- sion that Arrhenius really did not go far enough in his assumptions, the present conception of a salt solution involving complete, rather than partial, ionization.

Through the influence of Ostwald, the young Arrhenius was awarded a travel- ing fellowship, under which he worked in the chief laboratories of Europe for several years, returning to Stockholm as a lecturer in the HMgskola. The intense patriotism of Arrhenius held him in this position (which corresponded more

closely to a professorship in a university than to its actual title) for many years, during which he refused a number of at- tractive offers from other countries, es- pecially from Germany. Finally he was appointed director of the Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry, pleasantly situ- ated in the suburbs of Stockholm, and there he was enabled to continue free and uninterrupted research work for many years, surrounded by a small but eager band of advanced students.

Arrhenius was one of the few men who did not find it necessary to specialize; his scientific interests extended into the most diverse fields. His fame as a physical chemist, however, will probably always overshadow the researches which he car- ried out in biochemistry, astronomy, an- thropology and cosmology. Of all recent workers, he most deserved the title of 'universal scientist,'' not only for Ihis broad viewpoint, but also for the warm personal contacts which his genial nature ensured him in his extensive travels. The honors conferred upon him through- out his career were innumerable. He was a Nobel prize winner, a foreign mem- ber of the Royal Society, and the recipi- ent of practically every distinction that could be bestowed upon a scientist. In the course of several visits to America, he delivered a series of lectures at the Uni- versity of California and at Yale Uni- versity, and he was awarded the Willard Gibbs Medal of the Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society. The Silliman Lectures which he gave at New Haven were later published in book form under the title, "Theories of Solution." Other notable volumes from his pen in- clude "A Text-book in Electrochem- istry, " "Worlds in the Making " and

Chemistry in Modern Life. " JAMES KENDALL

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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 479

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SVANTE AUGUST ARRHENIUS

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