The investigation of the elementary reactions of reactive intermediate species began about half a centruy ago with the advent of free radical kinetics as an active area of chemical research. In spite of the relatively greater ease of detection of a species carrying an electrical charge, and the fact that organic chemists had for decades postulated mechanisms involving ionic intermediates, the systematic study of the elementary reactions of ions was delayed for more than twenty years after the first beginnings of free radical kinetics. Even at this writing, in 1978, the word "kinetics" is...