124 KEPOBT — 1851. 



On the Nomenclature of Organic Compounds. By Charles G. B. 

 Daubeny, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry at Oxford. 



Introduction. 

 My attention has of late been in some degree attracted to the nomenclature 

 of organic combinations, and on considering this subject, it has struck me 

 as a matter of surprise, that none of the British treatises on chemistry 

 with which I am acquainted should contain any rules to guide us, either in 

 affixing names to substances newly discovered, or in divining the nature and 

 relations of bodies from the appellations attached to them. Nor do I find 

 this deficiency supplied in a manner which to me appears satisfactory, when 

 I turn to the writings of continental chemists. Amongst these I may men- 

 tion two in particular, namely Gmelin and Gerhardt, who have busied them- 

 selves on this subject ; both men of eminence in their respective countries, 

 neither of whom however appears to me to have proposed a scheme of no- 

 menclature at all calculated for general adoption. 



Gmelin, indeed, in his Handbook, has invented entirely new names for all 

 simple bodies whatsoever, designating compound ones by means of words 

 made up of those which he had affixed to their constituents. He has even 

 gone further than this, first, in suggesting a method by which the number of 

 atoms of each element may be implied by the inflexion of the name which 

 expresses it ; and secondly, in extending the same mode of designation to 

 organic bodies, by the use of distinct terms for each of the supposed radicals, 

 from which, with the addition of certain other elements, the various sub- 

 stances met with in this department of nature are conceived to be built up. 

 Thus for example, — 



1 atom of oxygen is expressed by the word ane, 



2 atoms ene, 



3 atoms ine, 



4 atoms one, 



5 atoms une, 



6 atoms aene ; 



and so on. 



1 atom of hydrogen is called ale, 



2 atoms, by inflexions of the like description. 



1 atom of carbon is called ase, 



——— of sulphur afe, 



of nitrogen ate, 



of chlorine ahe, 



• of potass pate, 



of soda nate ; 



and so with others. Water will be designated by two syllables, derived from 

 its two constituents, and is therefore called alan ; sulphurous acid a/ew ; sul- 

 phuric acid afn ; sulphate of soda therefore will be naian-afin. Arbitrary 

 names are attached to the compound radicals : thus ethyl is vine ; amyl is 

 myl; pheuyle is/wwe, &c. 



Now it will be seen, that as the new names assigned to the elements bear 

 no relation whatsoever to those in common use, the amount of labour incurred 

 in the adoption of such a nomenclature would be equivalent to that attending 

 the acquisition of a new language, and one too all the more embarrassing 

 from the near resemblance which the words themselves bear to each other. 

 Accordingly I cannot bring myself to believe that such a nomenclature as 

 Gmelin's will ever come into general use ; for although it be true, that the 



