Osmotic molecular weight determination theory

In support of the association theory, colloid chemists cited non-reproduceable cryoscopic molecular weight determinations (which were eventually shown to be caused by errors in technique) and claimed that the ordinary laws of chemistry were not applicable to matter in the colloid state. The latter claim was based, not completely without merit, on the ascerta-tion that the colloid particles are large aggregates of molecules, and thus not accessible to chemical reactants. After all many natural colloids were shown to form double electrical layers and adsorb ions, thus they were "autoregulative" by action of their "surface field" (29). Furthermore, colloidal solutions were known to have abnormally high solution viscosities and abnormally low osmotic pressures. 

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