On the vapour-pressure and osmotic pressure of a volatile solute
It follows by a method given in a recent paper by the author that if the osmotic membrane be assumed to be impermeable to the solute, the formula for the change of vapour-pressure of a volatile solute with hydrostatic pressure, and also the formula for the osmotic pressure which is deduced from it, must be the same as the formula for a non-volatile solute, and should not contain any terms depending on the vapour-pressure of the solute, except in so far as it may affect the hydrostatic pressure of the solution. If, on the other hand, an osmotic membrane is regarded as a vapour-sieve permeable to the vapour of the solution but not to the liquid phase, the equation takes a different form, depending on the concentration of the constituents in the vapour-phase. If c 1 , c 2 , etc., be the concentrations of the constituents in grammes per gramme of the vapour, and if U 1 , U 2 , etc., be the specific volumes of the constituents in the solution, the change of total vapour-pressure dp of the solution for a change of hydrostatic pressure d P is given by the relation, ∑ c U d P = v dp , where v is the specific volume of the whole vapour-phase. If only on constituent is volatile, this relation reduces to the form U d P = v dp for that constituent.