—that is to say, the metal platinum can be displaced by any other metal of the series, but we shall get most heat if we use zinc to displace it.
We may therefore assume that if we displace a definite quantity of platinum by a definite quantity of zinc, we shall get a definite amount of heat. Suppose, however, that instead of performing the operation in one step, we make two of it. Let us, for instance, first of all displace copper by means of zinc, and then platinum by means of copper. Is it not possible that the one of these processes may be more fruitful in heat giving than the other? Now, Andrews has shown us that we cannot gain an advantage over Nature in this way, and that if we use our zinc first of all to displace iron, or copper, or lead, and then use this metal to displace platinum, we shall obtain just the very same amount of heat as if we had used the zinc to displace the platinum at once.
167. It ought here to be mentioned that, very generally, chemical action is accompanied with a change of molecular condition.
A solid, for instance, may be changed into a liquid, or a gas into a liquid. Sometimes the one change counteracts the other, as far as apparent heat is concerned; but sometimes, too, they co-operate together to increase the result. Thus, when a gas is absorbed by water, much heat is evolved, and we may suppose the result to be due in part to chemical combination, and in part to the condensation of the gas into a liquid, by which
