Affiliation

[Fr. affiliation.] The adoption of the child of another; the act of connection with a society. (Law.) An order of affiliation is that which a magistrate i ues on the oath of a woman, to compel the father of an illegitimate child to provide for his maintenance. If the mother be of sufficient ability to maintain the bastard while it is dependent upon her, and neglect that duty, so that it becomes chargeable to a parish, she is liable to be punished under the provisions of the vagrant act. If she be not of sufficient ability, the law will compel the father to supply a fund for its maintenance. Any single woman with child, or delivered of a bastard child, may, either before the birth, or at any time within the 12 months from the birth, make application to a magistrate, charging a person by name as the father of her child; and when the alleged father has within of location; hence, closene of social location, that is, relationship between persons not of the same blood; s0 differing from consanguinity. Hence, again, analogy of nature or character, as in color, sound, sentiment, or mental character; hence, again, likene in anything which should form ground of cla ification, as groups of language or natural history, or physical community, as chemical affinities. - Relationship; similarity; harmony; correlativene ; sympathy. ( Law . ) Relationship, in consequence of marriage, between the husband and the blood relations of the wife, and between the wife and the blood relations of the husband. This is a relationship in law, and no real kindred. A relation by affinity does not give right to legal succe ion. By the English law, persons related by affinity are forbidden to marry within the same degrees as persons related by blood. - See MARRIAGE. - So a man is not permitted, after his wife's death, to marry her sister, aunt, or niece. This rule is founded upon the Levitical law; but very learned writers think that its introduction into the municipal laws of modern countries is unnece ary and usele . The affinity does not extend to the nearest relations of husband and wife. The connection which has neither consanguinity nor affinity, as, the connection between a husband's brother and his wife's sister, is termed in Eng. law aff in it as aff in it at is. (Chem.) Affinity , or chemical attraction, is the force which causes the particles of di imilar kinds of matter to combine together, so as to form new matter. This definition indicates the differences between affinity and cohesion, which is another modification of molecular attraction. Cohesion merely binds similar particles into a ma ; affinity brings about the combination of heterogeneous particles, and causes them to lose their individual properties. The change of characters which follows the action of affinity is very wonderful; -for example, the inflammable metal sodium unites with the suffocating gas chlorine, and the compound thus produced is chloride of sodium, or common salt, a substance which does not bear the slightest resemblance to its components. Chemical combinations do not take place indifferently, but in accordance with certain strict rules or laws. One substance will unite with another in preference to a third, or in some cases to any other. This preference is denoted by the term elective affinity . By means of this discriminating action of affinity, some combinations may be decomposed. If, for instance, there be a substance, z, composed of two elementary bodies, a and b , which have a slighter affinity for each other than one of them, a, has for a third element, c; then, if we bring this third body into connection with them under the requisite condition, the one, a, which has the greatest affinity for it will leave the other, b , and unite with it to form another combination, y. The decomposition of water by red-hot iron illustrates such a case; for if water, which is composed of the elements oxygen and hydrogen, be pa ed through a tube containing iron filings heated to redne , its oxygen will unite with the iron to form a kind of rust, and its hydrogen will be set free. In every case where one constituent is expelled by a new body, and thus liberated, the decomposition is said to be the result of single elective affinity; but when two substances, each consisting of two constituents, act reciprocally upon each other, so as to produce two new compounds, the decomposition is referred to double elective affinity. This double reaction takes place when a chloride of phosphorus is thrown into water; the chlorine leaves the phosphorus, and unites with the hydrogen of the water to form hydrochloric acid, while the remaining elements, phosphorus and oxygen, enter into combination and produce phosphoric acid. The attraction of one body for another is greatly modified by the circumstances under which the two bodies are brought together. Alteration of temperature is one of the causes which influence the force of chemical attraction. When metallic mercury is heated nearly to its boiling-point, and exposed in this condition to the air for a lengthened period, it absorbs oxygen, and becomes converted into a dark red crystalline powder. But this same oxide of mercury, when raised to a still higher temperature, parts with its oxygen, which leaves the mercury in its original metallic state. Insolubility and the power of eva por i zati on are potent disturbing influences; they interfere in almost every reaction, and frequently turn the scale when the opposing affinities are nicely balanced. Thus, when a solution of lime in hydrochloric acid is mixed with a solution of carbonate of ammonia, a double reaction ensues; carbonate of lime and chloride of ammonium being generated. This result is brought about mainly by the insolubility of the carbonate of lime. What is called the nascent state is one very favorable to chemical combination. Thus, carbon and nitrogen retuse to combine with hydrogen under ordinary circumstances; but when these gases are nascent or newly evolved, as when they are simultaneously liberated from some previous combination, they unite readily. Some remarkable decompositions are referred to a peculiar modifica tion of chemical force, to which the term disposing affinity has been applied. The preparation of hydrogen from zinc affords a familiar example of such decompositions. A piece of polished zinc put into pure water remains perfectly bright for any length of time, and manifests no power of decomposing the liquid. On the addition, however, of a little sulphuric acid, the metal becomes oxydized, and hydrogen is freely disengaged. The acid di olves the oxide as fast as it is produced, and thus keeps the surface of the metal exposed to the action of the water. This function of the acid is perfectly intelligible; but its disposing influence, under which the oxide is first formed, is not well understood. Affinity is generally much stronger between bodies which are very unlike each other, than between bodies which are closely allied. Thus, pota ium and sodium tend strongly to unite with chlorine and iodine, but the bodies of each pair do not attract one another with sufficient force to enter into combination. The discoveries of Faraday and others have established the fact that whenever two substances unite to form a compound, they are in opposite electrical conditions; one being electro-negative, and the other electro-positive. This and other facts go to prove that chemical affinity is a particular modification of electrical attraction. - See ELECTROLYSIS. The word affinity appears to have been employed for the first time by Bark hausen, a German chemist, in his Elements of Chemistry, published at Leyden in 1703.