Experiment 4.—Examine a few crystals of sugar, and crush them with the fingers. Grind them as fine as convenient, and examine with a lens. They are still capable of division. Put 3 g. of sugar into a t.t., pour over it 5 cc. of water, shake well, boil for a minute, holding the t.t. obliquely in the flame, using for the purpose a pair of wooden nippers (Fig. 3). If the sugar does not disappear, add more water. When cool, touch a drop of the liquid to the tongue. Evidently the sugar remains, though in a state too finely divided to be seen. This is called a solution, the sugar is said to be soluble in water, and water to be a solvent of sugar.
(Fig 3.)
Now fold a filter paper, as in Figure 4, arrange it in a funnel (Fig. 5), and pour the solution upon it, catching what passes through, which is called the filtrate, in another t.t. that rests in a receiver (Fig. 5). After filtering, notice whether any residue is left on the filter paper. Taste a drop of the filtrate. Has sugar gone through the filter? If so, what do you infer of substances in solution passing through a filter? Save half the filtrate for Experiment 5, and dilute the other half with two or three times its own volume of water. Shake well, and taste.
(Fig 4.)
(Fig 5.) We might have diluted the sugar solution many times more, and still the sweet taste would have remained. Thus the small quantity of sugar would be distributed through the whole mass, and be very finely divided.
By other experiments a much finer subdivision can be made. A solution of.00000002 g. of the red coloring matter, fuchsine, in 1 cc. of alcohol gives a distinct color.
Such experiments would seem to indicate that there is no limit to the divisibility of matter. But considerations which we cannot discuss here lead to the belief that such a limit does exist; that there are particles of sugar, and of all substances, which are incapable of further division without entirely changing the nature of the substance. To these smallest particles the name molecules is given.
A mass is any portion of a substance larger than a molecule; it is an aggregation of molecules.
A molecule is the smallest particle of a substance that can exist alone.
A substance in solution may be in a more finely divided state than otherwise, but it is not necessarily in its ultimate state of division.