reaction enthalpy of chemical processes keep up their magnitude close to absolute zero. If the temperature of a body at rest is infinitely diminished (at constant external pressure), then its internal energy does not converge against zero, which is incidentally also excluded, because the reaction enthalpy of two bodies acting chemically on each other remains finite even at the lowest temperatures, but on the contrary it retains the same value at any finite temperature except for comparatively very minor terms. This energy store, which absolutely remains within the body at zero degrees, and against which all the usual physical and chemical processes within enthalpy changes are minimal, we want to denote as the "latent energy" of the body. The latent energy is quite independent of the temperature and the motion of chemical atoms,[1] its location is therefore to be found within the chemical atom; by its nature it could be of potential nature but just as well be of kinetic nature. For nothing hinders us to accept, which would even be considered very probably especially by the electrodynamic point of view, that within the chemical atoms certain stationary motion processes in the form of standing oscillations take place, associated with none or only small radiation. The energy of these oscillations, which can be very substantial, would (as long as the atoms remain unchanged) emerge in no other way than through inertia, by which it opposes to a translational acceleration of the oscillating system, and by the gravitational effect which is apparently in close connection to it. However, the views based on the kinetic theory of gases, which assume the inertial mass as something primarily given and the chemical atoms as rigid bodies or as simple material points, are insufficient for a further development of those ideas; namely, especially Boltzmann's law of even energy distribution in statistical equilibrium would also lose its meaning here. That in the field of intra-atomic processes the simple assumptions of the kinetic theory are in the need of profound additions, is indeed already suggested in view of the mercury spectrum, and is well recognized from all sides.
Although, after the foregoing, the existence and magnitude of the latent energy normally can only be inferred indirectly from theoretical considerations
- ↑ For this, see for example the considerations of K. Bose, Physikalische Zeitschrift 5, p. 356, p. 731, 1904.
