Terbium appears to be trivalent.
Carbon was joined with silicon, zirconium and titanium, while boron, being trivalent, was relegated to another group. A general classification of elements, however, was not realized by Frankland, nor even by Odling, who had also investigated the question from the valency standpoint.
If a certain minimum charge must be collected in order to start coagulation, it will need the conjunction of 6n monovalent, or 3n divalent, to equal the effect of 2n trivalent ions.
Such a reaction can only take place if the addition of the alkyl group takes place on the nitrogen atom of the isonitrile, from which it follows that the nitrogen atom must be trivalent and consequently the carbon atom divalent.
If we assume that a certain minimum electric charge must be brought into contact with a group of colloid particles to produce coagulation, twice as many univalent ions must collect to produce the same effect as a number of divalent ions, and three times as many as an effective number of trivalent ions.
