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THE HISTORY OF COLLOID SCIENCE1 In Memory of Wolfgang Ostwald ERNST A. HAUSER Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
T H E great philosopher and actual founder of modern physical chemistry, Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932), stated in one of his hooks that one of the most important properties of colloidal snbstances is that they permit the diffusion of crystalloidal matter without nobiceable restriction, while they are more or less impermeable *o other colloids. He accepted very early the terminology originated by Thomas Graham and made it clear in several publications why matter present in
abolished in 1927, however, when Wolfgang Ostwald used the term "colloid science" and explained its meaning in the introduction to the ninth and tenth editions of "The World of Neglected Dimensions": "It is peculiar to find that colleagues in other fields of chemistry frequently hold an opinion against colloid science which the author cannot accept as correct.. . ." (10). Only two other scientists had the courage to state openly in the introductions to their books, "Colloid Systems" (1937) and "Colloidal Phenomena" (1939), respectively, that the term "colloid chemistry" must be abolished and "colloid science" used in its lace. I n the author's preface to "Colloid ~y&ms" ( I ) A. Buzagh stated: In colloid science it is perhaps more certain than in any other science that w e cannot greatly further our knowledge if we forcibly create new theories on the lines of old ones to fit new facts, and become prematurely invalved in far-reaching generalizations. Moreover it is evident that new phenomena. can only be fully understood if we do not attempt t o squeeze them forcibly into the framework of our previous knowledge. I t is a mistake for the physical chemist to doubt that colloid soience has justified its existence, to fail to recognize its aims, and t o hold the opinion that the classical laws of physical chemistry can be directly applied to colloid phenomena, and that an explanation of these pheneomena. is automatically provided by the atomic theory. I t is equally a mistake to regard colloid science as completely isolated from pure chemistry and phy'sics and as following only its own special l a m .
the colloidal state cannot be treated from a strictly physicochemiral point of view. I n a book written in Ostwald's memory by his daughter Grete she refers also to her oldest brother, Wolfgang, saying: I n 1905, immediately after he had received his Ph.D., he arcepted an assi~tsntshipofferedb y Jack Loeb in Berkeley, California. There he made the acquaintance of Dr. (Med.) Martin Fisher who beeamc the best and most trustworthy friend of his life, and the man to whom be dedicated his first scientific book, "The World of Neglected Dimensions." At Berkeley he also found his scientific work for lifo, namcly, the still-to-be proved and strengthened science of colloids.
Up to fairly recently only the term "colloid chemistry" has been used in textbooks, for the listing of classes, and as the name for a specific division of chemical societies. This term should have been already 1 Presented before the Division of History of Chemiatry a t the 126th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, New York, September, 1!)51.
I n the preface to L'ColloidalPhenomena" (4), Ernst A. Hauser said: I t required men of courage, convinced by their experimental results, endowed with a keen sense of observation, and capable of sound logical reasoning, to free themselves from conventional viewpoints and establish entirely new lines of thought. . . . It would be suicidal, scimtifically, to abandon further attempts to obtain a more profound knadedge of the happenings in this ultramicrocosmoa simply because we cannot always describe and predict reactions in rigid mathematical terms as we have been used to doine in other exaot sciences. .
physicochemical studies-and
microscopical dimensions.
It was this trio, Wolfgang Ostwald, Buzagh, and Hauser, who made i t clear what colloid science involves and why i t cannot be classified simply as chemistry or as a side branch of physical chemistly. More attention must he paid to the fact that any matter will
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eshibit colloidal properties if a t least one of its dimen- gang Ostwald far more than the mere coining of the sions falls within the colloidal range, and that colloid term "colloid science." His formation of the Kolloid science therefore involves not only chemistry and Gesellschaft and the inauguration of the two periodicals physics, but is equally important to such other fields drew more attention to this new branch of science as, for example, geology, mineralogy, medicine, bi- than most people in those days felt would ever be ology, and many other fields of science and technology. possible. He died from cancer of the liver, suffering terribly, WOLFGANG OSTWALD (1883-1943) on November 22, 1943. Luckily he was not a witness The world owes more to Wolfgang Ostwald than of the complete destmction of his world-famous library most people realize. He was not only an outstanding in Leipzig during the war. scientist but an excellent musician who offered quite We should follow his basic suggestions and make a few compositions to the world. I t was in all prob- it clear that colloid science is a branch of science which ability his love for music which led him to marry, in can stand on its own. We must remember that it his early years, an opera star from Leipzig. He had pertains to the reactivity of surfaces and interfaces, inherited from his parents an overwhelming desire not to chemical composition as such. to help human beings and animals. At the very be) ginning of the Nazi regime in Germany he offered ALADAR BUZAGH (1895definite proof of this when he managed to find ways and Dr. Auzagh received his advanced education a t the means for a few friends and former students of Jewish Institute of Technology in Budapest, Hungary, and fait,h to escape Germany before any harm could be then a t the Universities of Berlin and Leipzig in Gerdone to them. This is an undeniable fact which has many. He received his doctorate from the University been completely disregarded by some German ref- of Budapest in 1920. Thers he inaugurated the ugees who, late in 1945, published some very dis- Institute for Colloid Chemistry and Colloid Techtasteful statements about his political affiliations. nology, which he still heads. Buzagh deserves special credit for having been one When Ostwald visited the United States for the last time, in 1938 as guest of honor at the Fifteenth National of the three who always maintained that colloidal probColloid Symposium, he said to me that he had come lems deserve a special branch of science. He titled only to pay tribute to the development of colloid his first book "I
