Very confused about Naunyn definition of acid and base

[red65]

TL;DR Summary

i can't grasp naunyn defintion of acid and base

First so that you can have some background I'd like to share an excerpt from the online lecture I'm studying. Here's a sample:

"1880-Arrhenius defines an acid as a substance that , when dissolved in water, produces an increased concentration of hydrogen ions.

1900-Naunyn combines Arrhenius' definition with Farady"s previous supposition that anions such Cl- are "base forming" (i.e. an acid) and cations such ass Na+ are "acid forming" (i.e. a base) thus acid-base status wasn't determined solely by [H+] but also by a number of other common electrolytes"

can someone explain to me how sodium behaves like a base and how chloride behaves like an acid (maybe equation that show sodium sequester a proton and another showing chloride somewhat provoking the release of a proton )

 

[Borek]

I can be wrong, but it seems to me you are trying to understand the definition in terms of our todays understanding of what the acid is. If so, it probably won't work - I strongly doubt Naunyn thought in terms of H⁺, more likely he thought something like "when there is chlorine present solution becomes acidic" and "when there are alkali/alkaline metal earth present solution becomes/is basic" (hard to tell what was the exact wording without trying to find/read the original paper).

Obviously he was wrong, which is why we are still taught Arrhenious definition, and Naunyn these days gets points only in historical books, only for the effort.