The Influence of Salts on the Rate of Diffusion of Acid through Collodion Membranes

1. The writer had previously published the observation that if a salt solution made up in an acid solution (e.g. HCl) of a definite pH (e.g. 3.0) is separated by a collodion membrane from pure water containing the same acid of the same pH, acid is at first driven from the salt solution into the water, so that the pH of the latter becomes at first lower than that of the solution. 2. It is shown in this paper that this paradoxical phenomenon is not due to any peculiarity of the membrane but is a consequence of the well known fact that the diffusion constant of an acid is increased by a salt.