777^ ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



<^who are not like other men, but are sup- 

 posed to know not only everything, but 

 even things which are not,) are applied 

 to, and either weariedly repeat an oft- 

 repeated explanation, wondering mean- 

 while if it would not pay to have printed 

 forms for some of these things, or lose 

 themselves in a necessarily futile search 

 after a trade secret. And all these in- 

 conveniences are without a single com- 

 pensating feature, unless it be in some 

 cases the favoring of ulterior purposes. 

 It is a custom common enough, yet en- 

 tirely without excuse, as there is no 

 obstacle to the employment of an authori- 

 tative name for every article in medicinal 

 use. Probably its most serious evil re- 

 sult is one that does not appear directly 

 to those who are inconvenienced, but to 

 which they are unconsciously inclined — ■ 

 a disgust for everything new and a disin- 

 clination to participate in that experi- 

 mental research which has given us 

 every good thing which we possess, from 

 which alone we can hope for any more 

 good things in the future, and whose 

 success requires the intelligent co-opera- 

 tion ot the rank and iile, as well as the 

 pioneering of a few leaders. 



To understand the introduction of 

 these misleading names we must consider 

 them in classes. Errors in common names 

 must be charged generally to common 

 ignorance, though they are sometimes 

 the result of design. The same thing 

 growing in remote districts receives dif- 

 ferent vernacular names and an old drug, 

 especiall}^ if long out of use, is at any 

 time liable to reappear and flourish for a 

 time under some one of these local names 

 tiot previously connected with its general 

 use, as in the case of Shepherd's Purse. 

 The uneducated eye of the immigrant to 

 a new country apparently beholds in one 

 of its plants, similar onl)^, a medicinal 

 plant previousl}^ known to him, and the 

 ■corresponding name is wrongly bestowed 



upon it, giving us two drugs of the same 

 name as in the case of Angelica ; the 

 subsequent prefixing of the qualification 

 " American," " Mexican," or " Brazil- 

 ian," is very rarely successful, as the 

 majority of people will not take the 

 trouble to employ it. 



If the present remarks were in reference 

 to the ethical aspects of the case, our 

 special compliments would here be paid 

 to those who apply some fanciful name to 

 a well-known substance, or combination 

 of them, and by virtue of false represen- 

 tations establish a place for it in the trade, 

 and for its new name in medical litera- 

 ture. But utterly unjustifiable as this is, 

 from a moral point of view, it hardly con- 

 tributes to an immediate confusion of 

 nomenclature, as the new name is usually 

 made to stand independently in profes- 

 sional outlawry. 



The scientific names, while on a very 

 different plane, are subject to precisely 

 similar contingencies. Vernacular con- 

 fusions are scarcely more common than 

 the application of new names for alkaloids 

 or other proximate principles already iso- 

 lated elsewhere and otherwise named, 

 (as Buxine — Pelosine — Beberine.) while 

 the possession of two or more botanical 

 names is the unhappy condition of a 

 majority of at least all the more early 

 known plants. Even the opposite con- 

 dition of having two or more plants in- 

 cluded under one botanical name is not 

 so very uncommon, as witness Cephaelis 

 Ipecacuanha for the very dissimilar Ipe- 

 cac plants of New Grenada and Brazil, 

 Pilocarpus Selloanus for the equally dis- 

 tinct Jaborandi plants (now separated by 

 Mr. Holmes,) of Pernambuco and Rio, 

 and Prunus Virginiana for the worthless 

 genuine P. Virginiana, L. and the valu- 

 able P. serotina, Ehrh. In short, there 

 is no class of names in use by our profes- 

 sion which are out of the reach of the 

 misconceptions under consideration. 



