The determination of the osmotic pressures of solutions by the measurement of their vapour pressures

In May, 1903, we described, in a preliminary paper, some experiments by which we had measured directly the osmotic pressures of strong solutions of cane sugar in water. Since then a repetition of the experiments with an improved apparatus has been carried out, the results of which we hope to publish very shortly. As these results depart widely from the theoretical gas laws, it was deemed advisable to obtain the osmotic pressures of the same solutions by an independent method; and an experimental investigation of the well known connection between the “lowering” of the vapour pressure of a solution and its osmotic pressure seemed suitable.