of Chemical Philosophy and Nomenclature. 177 



Since the period of that correspondence, so demonstrative 

 of candour and good feeling on the part of the great Swedish 

 chemist, I have published two editions of my Compendium of 

 Chemistry, in which I have pursued a course corresponding 

 with my criticisms above alluded to. I am therefore desirous, 

 in addition to the letter of Berzelius to lay before the public 

 a recapitulation, review, and an additional explanation of the 

 grounds upon which I have ventured to employ a language, 

 and an arrangement inconsistent with the practice and opi- 

 nions of a chemist by whose authority in other respects I am 

 usually influenced. But before proceeding with the ungracious 

 task of endeavouring to establish the correctness of my views 

 in opposition to those of my friend, I feel that it will be no 

 more than justice to repeat an acknowledgement, already made 

 in my text book, that if De Bonsdorff, myself, and others are 

 right in considering the double salts of Berzelius as simple salts, 

 it is to the light afforded by his investigations, that we owe the 

 power of seeing the subject correctly. I believe the idea, that 

 any other body besides oxygen could produce both acids and 

 bases capable of forming salts, originated with Berzelius, in 

 the instance of sulphur. 



Recapitulation and Review of the Grounds of his deviating 



from the Language and Arrangement of Berzelius, and other 



distinguished Chemists; with some additional Explanations 



and Suggestions, by R. Hare, M.D., Professor of Chemistry 



in the University of Pennsylvania. 



According to the Berzelian nomenclature, bodies which 

 produce salts by a union with radicals are called halogen or 

 salt producing bodies, while those which with radicals form 

 both acids and bases, capable by their union of constituting 

 salts, are called amphigen bodies or both producers. Salts, 

 produced by the first mentioned class are called haloid salts; 

 those produced by the other are called amphide salts. 



I objected to this classification, that the words salt, acid 

 and base, were broad, vague and unsettled in their acceptation, 

 having, by chemists in general, and especially by Berzelius, 

 been employed to designate substances differing in composi- 

 tion, and extremely discordant in their properties ; that no 

 method of defining a salt had been devised, which had not 

 been founded either on properties or composition ; that in the 

 nomenclature of Berzelius properties were disregarded, since 

 among his haloid and amphide salts were found substances 

 differing extremely in this respect. Thus, for instance, com- 

 mon salt, Glauber's salt, Epsom salt, vitriolated tartar, and 

 cream of tartar, were associated with the fuming liquor of 



Third Series. Vol. 11. No. 66. Jug. 1837. 2 A 



