126 REPORT — 1851. 



take to originate a Sj'stem of Nomenclature. All that I aim at accomplishing 

 is to impart, if possible, something like definiteness to our ideas on the sub- 

 ject ; and this I propose to do, first by comparing the names assigned by the 

 highest authorities to various organic compounds with the relations in which 

 the bodies themselves stand to each otlier, and by submitting to you such 

 inferences with respect to the general principles which appear to have guided 

 them in the choice of the terms they employ, as I may have thence deduced ; 

 and secondly, by pointing out instances in which the principles assumed ap- 

 pear to have been departed from, and thus anomalies to have been intro- 

 duced into the language employed. 



The plan adopted by the founders of that distinct branch of science now 

 recognised as Organic Chemistry, seems to have been nothing more than an 

 extension of the system common in all similar cases, namely, to select, 

 as a generic name for a class, that of some body belonging to it which hap- 

 pens to be most familiarly known to us. Thus, as the use of the term Salt 

 has been from time immemorial extended, from the substance commonly and 

 best known to us as such, to all that class of bodies which possesses a similar 

 constitution, so in organic chemistry Alcohol is employed as a generic term 

 for a class of bodies, of which spirits of wine is the type ; Ether for that of 

 which the body commonly called sulphuric ether is the best known ; Camphor 

 for the one to which the well-known product from the Laurus Camphora 

 belongs. It is also customary to employ one of the syllables of the word 

 expressive of a class as a part of the name of any particular member of it. 

 Thus chloraZ is a body of the type of aldehyde, but containing chlorine ; ure- 

 thane, a compound of an ether with an organic base, urea. These indeed 

 may perhaps be regarded rather as abbreviations of the former, than as 

 distinct names for the members of a series. 



I shall therefore begin by considering the names applied to those classes 

 under which the multiplied products of natural and artiticial processes which 

 present themselves in the domain of organic chemistry have been ranged, at 

 least provisionally, by our systematic writers. 



Part I. — On the Classes of Organic Bodies. 



The following classes of organic bodies appear to be recognized : — 



Hydrocarbons. Alcohols. Nitriles. 



Essential oils. Aldehydes. Ureas. 



Camphors. Hydrurets. Cetones. 



Resins. Ethers. Glycerides. 



Acids. Amides. Neutral or indif- 



Neutral salts. Imides. ferent compounds. 



Alkalies. 

 Hydrocarbons. — Hydrocarbon is a term comprehending too miscellaneous 

 a collection of bodies to be of much use for the purposes of classification in 

 the ordinary sense in which it is employed, embracing, as it does, not only the 

 so-called compound radicals, but likewise a large number of the essential oils. 

 As however several of these latter contain in addition oxygen, and others sul- 

 phur, such a classification would be inapplicable to a large proportion of the 

 members of this family ; and it is also to be considered, that in those oils 

 which consist only of carbon and hydrogen, a portion of the latter principle 

 seems bound to the other element by a looser affinity than the remainder, so 

 that even these may be regarded rather in the light of hydrurets than of 

 simple hydrocarbons. Reserving therefore this latter term for bodies which 



